- I'll call this meeting to order. This is the Bloomington City Bloomington Common Council budget hearings
- for 2027 and It's our final evening. This is Wednesday, August 26th, and we have a number of departments
- and Commissions the Monroe County Capital Improvement Board the office of the city clerk office of the
- Common Council office of the mayor office of the controller legal and risk management department and
- Human Resources Department and Information and Technology Services Department ITS and each one is allotted
- ten minutes So let's begin Excuse me councilmember Rallo. Would you like me to call the roll? We should
- call the roll. Yes Councilmember Flaherty Stossburg here Piedmont Smith Zulek here as sorry Daily Rallo here Ruff
- Rosenberger Thank You deputy city clerk McDonald so with that we'll begin would you the controller like
- to speak first or Okay, mr. Allen did you have something to say all right, let's begin the Monroe County
- Capital Improvement Board Mr. Weichert. Thanks for joining us I'm here this evening with Jeff Underwood
- our controller Jim sober Stein
- Treasurer Doug Bruce, who's your appointee to the Capital Improvement Board and Talisha Coppock is here
- with us this evening from the Convention Center So my my nervousness tonight is not the presentation.
- It's the ability to advance the slides. So all right An update on what's happened in 2026 the Convention
- Center expansion building envelope is completed and
- There were property transfers that occurred For properties south of the current Convention Center that
- came from both the Redevelopment Commission and the county Requests for those transfers were made in
- January in keeping with the interlocal agreement they were
- We were told they could be transferred in April and we agreed to the transfers It was in June 5th that
- those transfers actually occurred and the deeds were transferred So those properties have been in our
- ownership since June 5th Selected a major art installation project and contracted for design of limestone
- arts projects Some of you voted on the public vote on the art installation you know that we've selected
- a the wisteria wrap around the bridge and
- We had $520,000, which was the 1% appropriation for art. $400,000 of that was designed or committed
- for the art installation. The remaining $100,000 is for the next phase of that art project, which will
- include local art for exhibit. We awarded alternates for the existing building. And I want to mention
- that among those alternates, in February of 2025, we approved the final design of the convention center.
- And at that time, we set aside six project activities that were identified as alternates. We weren't
- sure that we could commit to the funding of those alternates. Those alternates were in the current convention
- center. And they included an IT upgrade, a kitchen upgrade, a new HVAC system, a direct outdoor air
- system, new window replacements, all to improve the efficiency of the building, and some masonry work.
- We were able in September of 2025 Looking at our contingency budget to commit to the IT upgrade in the
- current building So the two buildings could this is an English major saying two buildings could talk
- to one another because that's how I understand IT and For the kitchen upgrade, but that left four other
- alternates that we were not able to fund in September in April we approached the Convention and Visitors
- Commission
- Asked them if they would commit to funding the remaining alternates for the current building at a tune
- of 1.6 million dollars and the Convention and Visitors Commission voted to do that and in fact that
- 1.6 million dollars will come from the budget of the CVC so we are able to Fund all of the alternates
- all six of the alternates for the current Convention Center staying within our budget and with the assistance
- of the CVC completing those alternates and
- Accepted operating responsibilities for the Convention Center's day-to-day operations in July The new
- building target completion date is it says January 7th. I happen to know it's January 8th Because January
- 8th is Elvis's birthday and so I've put a picture of Elvis and the construction office and they know
- January 8th is the completion date for the Convention Center will then move over into the
- Targeted completion of the current building and the renovations in the current building which will include
- those alternates that I identified for you just moments ago We will let me turn this over now to mr.
- Underwood who will talk with you about the the budget both for the Convention Center And for our project
- and Talisha Coppix here as well for any questions you have later. Thank you
- Good evening, Jeff Underwood controller for the capital improvement board. We're here to present two
- budgets for you this year the last budget for the food and beverage funds that the city set aside for
- related to the construction of the existing and current facility and then the interlocal agreement calls
- that Both fiscal bodies the county and the city's fiscal bodies will approve the annual operating budget
- For the Convention Center going forward. So we're going to present the 2027 operating budget as well
- as noted for this request These this funding comes out of the food and beverage fund It is included
- with the controllers office as well and a part of the larger appropriation for the full city budget
- for 2027 we're proposing no personnel costs
- In category two, supplies, $1,000. In category three, professional services, internal, for legal, controller,
- and owner's rep, insurance, website, and then other. And if I can figure this out, all right. And in
- the other category, which is the majority of the expenses, you can see commissionings of $60,000,
- communications, AV and IT for 400.
- Security issues a hundred thousand graphics and signage five hundred thousand relocation services 50
- furniture fixtures and equipment of 400 and then a contingency of just over two point six million dollars
- for a total of four million four one nine and the total budget request then is five four million five
- one three six one six and this would be the end of this will be the last food and beverage budget and
- That we would present to the City Council With that I'll move on to the operations budget and it looks
- a little different because we will be collecting revenues For the rental space in the Convention Center
- of estimated to be around three hundred and sixteen thousand Then service revenues and this is catering
- and 80 IT and IV services of a million five seventy four and
- and then to close the gap between expenditures and expected revenues in keepers revenue of 1.397 million
- dollars for total estimated revenues of 3 million 288 on the expense side you can see cost of sales
- of 1 million 361 and that consists mainly of additional services for catering and AV and IT and those
- are billed directly to the
- compliance, comprehensive insurance program that covers both the operations and properties of the convention
- center of 200,000, utilities 377, building maintenance 340, office of 58, membership and service enhancements
- of 29,000, and professional services contracts 922,000.
- In this budget, there is no city subsidy, so there is no direct city revenues provided to the convention
- center. The only additional revenues that come through are through the county and innkeepers tax. That
- money is appropriated to the Convention and Visitors Commission and then we have an agreement with them
- to both provide sales support and the funding gap. With that, I will stop talking and we're happy to
- answer any questions you might have.
- Thank You mr. Underwood, we'll go to council questions now for the Monroe County Capital Improvement
- Board Councilmember Piedmont Smith Yes, the professional service contracts in your operating budget,
- what would that include That's will be our contract with the Convention Center management company
- That provides the personnel and operates the day-to-day operations. So all the staffing and related
- cost to providing us that service so delicious delicious works for that company they this is the company
- that has Managed the Convention Center on behalf of the county from its inception and the CIB is going
- to continue to employ them to do that as well Separate from visit blooming and Bloomington and DBI
- Yes, so what's it called? so the innkeepers tax is is Managed by the convention and visitors commission
- and that's in a county appointed board They contract with visit Bloomington for their part of it and
- then they contract with us to provide funding and sales support For the convention center itself the
- the day-to-day operations are then through the the CCMC
- CCMC Convention Center management company, so that's what it's called. Yes. Okay, you can see that there's
- yeah many entities It's taking a while to wrap our heads around all the different groups that are involved
- but Our relationship the CIBs will basically be with the CVC and with the CCMC Okay my other question
- is so you expect all Construction
- and Renovation costs to be completed and closed out next year. You say you don't expect to bring us
- a budget for 20 No, we will not need to bring you a budget next year for food and beverage We expect
- to be closed out. The actual construction will finish up July 1st It'll take us several months to close
- out all the final invoices the commissioning the handover I would anticipate that we would be fully
- done no later than early 2028 but
- We wouldn't need any additional funds for that. Okay. Thank you Council council member Zulu, you know,
- I hear that we've been doing very well in sales Moving forward. I was wondering if anyone could speak to that
- Tell us a copy Convention Center management company and yeah sales have been going great in communication
- with the different meeting planners We have 70 proposals out 29 sign and
- Events going through 2032. We're super excited about that Like some examples the asphalt paving association
- 600 people for three days and that's next year the Indiana Dental Association We have 700 people and
- that's going to be for three days. They were very excited about
- Indiana Parks and Recreation, Indiana Community Corrections. I like sharing those names just because
- they're such different entities. They all have a connection with IU in some way. They want to come back
- to Bloomington to visit. We've been providing tours to meeting planners and organizations that work
- with meeting planners. October 12th and 13th, we have two days of tours to show them the space.
- We've had connections with these folks for years, and it's finally time that we can start offering them
- something. The building's working out really well for groups of 500 that they can have their general
- session, move into exhibit space for sales, then move into breakout rooms.
- a great group we just talked with, a local person is the band director for IU's School of Music and
- he wants to bring 300 band directors from other colleges here and as they start talking, they've got
- these three main presentations they need to do but then they bring bands along and the students and
- then they need to have space and then they'll have
- different performances at the end from the different students. And so they'll be going back and forth
- between the convention center during the day and the IU School of Music in the afternoons and then coming
- back downtown for different breakouts. So we're super excited about that. The downtown visitor center
- opening at the 4th Street parking garage is going to be a nice way to
- connect them with the community as well and tell that story. That's supposed to open in December. So
- I am pleasantly surprised that these planners are as excited as they are and they like the space. And
- our local groups also, the Food Bank, Suit Bowl for example, they've been at capacity for years and
- tickets sell out in like two days. And so they are so excited to
- go into that larger space, and that'll be in February. So I think it's good. I'm really excited, and
- thank you for all your support through all these different conversations for 20 years of how do we make
- this happen. So we're working with the different hotels over the next two to three years.
- so we're doing different packages and incentives so that you know, because we don't have that host hotel
- yet and That'll even go to a next level whenever we do have that I'm excited about it. So I'm Thank
- you miss topic. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Okay. Thanks for the question other questions from
- council I have got one
- Mr. Underwood perhaps I should ask it of you because you mentioned that there is a contingency under
- the other services Column you've got a contingency of 2.6 some million dollars What happens for to that
- if it's unspent it would revert back to the city. It's coming back to us Okay. Okay, great
- And just one last thing that mr. Weikert mentioned is that I was pleased to hear because we're all concerned
- about the volatility in markets and costs and things like that, but you've basically You've got already
- contracts with the various Professional services contractors and so forth that It's you're not subject
- to any price volatility going forward. No, we have everyone under contract for both the base and
- Construction and the alternates. Okay, great. Good to hear Okay, if there are no further questions,
- then we will go to the public Is there any public here that would like to speak on the Monroe County
- Capital Improvement Board? budget Please state your name and you have three minutes Hi, my name is raised
- a devil and I just wanted to say I think that giving four and a half million dollars of public funds to
- An organization that's gonna destroy affordable housing And replace it with for-profit activities is
- not For the public good. Thanks Thank you for your comments and My other question would be if the operating
- budget is a net zero after you include non-operating activities would there be a net loss a Net loss.
- Okay. Thank you for that. I
- Let's go online to see if there is there anyone in line that would like to To speak user raised hand
- function. Mr. Allen will attend to you Anyone? Yes to two people. Okay, please state your name and you
- have three minutes. I Guess I'm up. This is Paul Rousseau In the recently published Bloomington 2026
- community survey the greatest concern of the respondents was the shortage of affordable housing and
- The City Council also has made the issue a top priority. Your concern was evident during the debate
- over permanent affordability for the Hopewell South development. But seven days ago, the Monroe County
- Capital Improvement Board stated its intent to tear down about 30 units of old apartments that have
- become relatively affordable, what many would call naturally occurring affordable housing.
- According to its own bylaws, the specific purpose of the Capital Improvement Board is, and I quote,
- to select the site for the expansion of the Convention Center expansion components, contract with operation
- and management organizations, oversee the process for hotelier partner selection, name the expanded
- center, hire and retain support staff, and determine the need for additional amenities, including a
- parking garage, end quote.
- Note that the purpose of the Capital Improvement Board is not to make decisions regarding housing.
- Nonetheless, the board is preparing to destroy the apartments at Seminary Point even though the hotelier,
- Dora Hospitality, does not need and will not be purchasing that part of the land that was purchased
- by the Capital Improvement Board. The board intends to divide the land into a hotel on the north side
- of the six and a half acres and land for resale on the south side.
- There's no evidence that the land to be sold off the part on which the apartments currently exist would
- be directly related to the Convention Center If the capital improvement board has become a rogue agency
- that exceeds its mandate in a manner in direct opposition to affordable housing Then I question why
- the City Council would want to continue funding it Thank you Thank You mr. Rousseau We'll come back
- to chambers if you would like to
- Speak please state your name first. Thank you Hello, my name is Barry herbers The CIB is a fundamentally
- corrupt and anti-democratic body this year The CIB was given 29 units of super affordable housing and
- several affordable commercial spaces in downtown Bloomington essentially for free They have since thrown
- out every single person living or working in them I have of course talking about the tragedy of seminary
- point here are some CIB highlights from 2026 and
- Under the CIB's watch, a family recovering from addiction and expecting a second child was forced out
- of their apartment. Under the CIB's watch, a young man's rent was raised 20% every month until he was
- forced to leave his home. I doubt any of them even know that happened. Under the CIB's watch, a 70-year-old
- woman with cancer was forced to leave the home she lived in for 10 years. They messed up businesses,
- too. Friendly Beast Satire and Blue Tip Billiards were the only social venues within walking distance
- of my house. The CIB forced them both to close last week. There are now zero social venues within walking
- distance of my house.
- Sounds like friendly beasts narrowly managed to scrape together a new location, but Blue Tip is destroyed.
- The CIB is destroying my neighborhood, and now their president, John Weickart, that guy over there,
- real bad dude, is parading around calling Seminary Point a public nuisance. These buildings are covered
- in beautiful murals. I watched one of them get painted, and until last week, this place was a hub of
- communal activity. The CIB is destroying my neighborhood, and for what?
- a corporate subsidy so taxpayers can buy Dora Hospitality, a new hotel to service wealthy tourists while
- they walk around on my neighborhood's corpse. But it's actually even worse than that. They're not even
- building the taxpayer-subsidized hotel on Subsidary Point. They're building it next to Seminary Point.
- All of those people's lives were ruined and businesses uprooted because the CIB never wants a wealthy
- tourist to see a poor person. At this point, any rational person starts thinking, Jesus Christ, who
- elected these people? And that's the rub. Of course, you know this.
- The CIB is an unelected body with no public oversight and no accountability of any kind, other than
- the money local government gives them. Throughout the tragedy of Seminary Point, you, city council,
- are the only relevant body that has not shown abject corruption. The CIB are the worst of the worst.
- It is their job to make life harder for poor people so that it can be easier for wealthy tourists. And
- it is unconscionable to give these villains another cent. You cannot keep letting them do this.
- Make your term on City Council means something. If you give them one more cent, I will never, ever forgive
- you. These people are scum. Thank you. OK, thank you. And let's go to the online. Mr. Allen.
- Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Please state your name. You have three minutes. Excellent.
- My name is Seiforth Breeze. I wish to mirror many of the comments other folks have made, concerns over
- the CIB and how it has handled itself on the matter of Seminary Point. I believe that it has acted in
- ways which are counter to the public interest and
- I mean really some of the comments before I've covered much of what I want to talk about. One of the
- points that came up during this public comment or sorry during the Commissioner questions though was
- about the two million dollars. I was curious if there would be a way to earmark that going forward for
- affordable housing to provide some sort of like stopgap measure to just prevent those funds from disappearing.
- when they are so closely tied to the CIB to the entire saga with Seminary Point. I want to also echo
- previous comments stating that I think the City Council has taken concrete steps through this sort of
- like, you know, through the Seminary Point saga and that that has been noted and has been appreciated.
- Many other sort of like individuals who are tied to this have made, you know, sort of statements alluding
- to the fact that they support affordable housing, that they think that, you know, like there should
- be a land swap when that was still viable, things of that nature. And those steps that y'all have taken
- have been noted and it's appreciated. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comment. Anyone else
- in chambers?
- I'd like to please state your name, and you have three minutes. Awesome. My name is Matthew Joseph.
- I just wanted to use this opportunity to want to obviously talk about the budget a little bit with the
- Capital Improvement Board, but also just name what's going on here. This is very clearly a classic story
- of gentrification. I mean, we're talking about a decade and a half of deferred maintenance from the
- county level
- I know people that live at Seminary Point that was requesting maintenance for a very long time, it wasn't
- getting that. In fact, the roof that they love to reference as falling down was requested to be fixed
- years ago, was not fixed, and then that land is now owned by the Capital Improvement Board,
- and has now been, no longer is the reason for destroying Seminary Point is for a host hotel. Literally
- the only case that
- John Wehrkart and the Capital Improvement Board is making for why they're destroying it is because they
- think that the buildings are too far gone. Do you see the pattern that we've gotten stuck in, right?
- We don't listen to the tenants asking for their needs and then we justify the destruction of where they
- live for the sake of something like a convention center, but in this case it's not even, it's really
- just to keep the land empty and I'm sure, because the Capital Improvement Board has
- has only one interest, and that is to build a convention center. So it's in their legal bounds to sell
- it to the highest bidder, which is likely going to be student housing, and then use that money to build
- more of the convention center. And that doesn't help any of the locals or encourage any of the locals for us to
- care more about Bloomington for us to stay, for us to care about the culture that we live in here. I
- just want us to know that this is the story that's happening. The Capital Improvement Board is telling
- you another story of gentrification. This is not Harlem, New York. That's what we think about when we
- think of gentrification. This is literally a perfect example of it. You guys are perpetuating that system
- continuing. I'm just disappointed in y'all.
- Because I think that you guys know how politics works. Excuse me. Yes, please address the chair when
- you when you speak. Okay, forgive me. Yeah And I think just like and then so I just when it comes to
- the when it comes to the budget I think that's There is is there room here is a question, right? Like
- is there a world where you take the money out of the budget that they use to demolish affordable housing?
- I wish I knew all the nits and grits of like what exactly it could look like but like what is the leverage
- that we can do so this doesn't happen again and then also like just keeping this story if Seminary Point
- does get destroyed like I don't want this to happen in vain I don't want this to happen again for our
- community because we want to keep Bloomington have that charm. We don't want to just keep Kicking our
- own people out. Thank you Thank you for your comment Is there anyone else in chambers?
- to speak Anyone else online mr. Allen? Okay, we'll come back to council for final comments on Monroe
- County capital improvement board budget Anyone interested in councilmember Piedmont Smith Two comments
- first of all, I did ask mr. Underwood for a more detailed like a
- spreadsheet showing revenues and expenditures and comparing it to 26 so that should be issued as a Dandem
- Probably next week and then on the other hand I Appreciate the members of the public who have been actively
- trying to save the super affordable housing a seminary point and I do recognize that
- We have some leverage here because they're asking us to approve their budget. So I'm going to be reaching
- out and talking to folks at the CIB and talking to my colleagues and seeing if we can do anything to
- either preserve the housing or some of the housing that's there or have some funds from the sale of
- that land or all of the funds, all or some designated for low income housing.
- So I I will continue to pursue that. Thank you Thank you other comment Councilmember Flaherty Appreciate
- the comments from members of the public There have been a number of decisions the CIA bees made over
- the years that I've Really disagreed with and thought were not at all in the public interest. I've also
- been bothered by the structure and
- but I believe to be a general lack of accountability of that body. So yeah, that's not new. I think
- the case of this housing at Seminary Point is just such a shame that this is what has come to the, I
- think the last speaker, Matthew Joseph maybe was his name, really outlined a part of the story here,
- which is that it wasn't cared for appropriately by local government for many, many years, ostensibly
- because it was going to be used for a convention center site.
- That was always a stretch, because it's so far from the designated site. And it's just sad, because
- it was so avoidable. Maybe it still is. Maybe there's some other benefits that can be salvaged.
- But yeah, it really is a shame. I appreciate folks advocating to preserve affordable housing that we
- have occurring near our downtown, and appreciate your comments tonight. Thanks. Thank you.
- Councilmember Rosenberg, I also appreciate the public comment today I Think it is a huge shame and just
- great disappointment where we are. Thanks for the other comments I don't want to say the same things
- I mean it was either nine of nine of us or eight of nine of us that asked for a land swap and
- It seems to have not mattered and not been really considered well by the RDC the administration and
- the CIB I live right there, too So I say I think it is the best place to live and I think it is the
- most awesome place to have affordable housing You don't need a car. You literally walk across the street
- to a grocery store I think it it was like a challenge to maybe keep
- keep it and but like we can do hard things and a lot of times we choose not to or we again choose to
- just give money to I mean Tourism in a way that I think is not helpful and I was against the convention
- center from the get and this just makes it even Harder that not only do we have this convention center,
- but we also have lost so many affordable units I also find it ironic that we did a you know PUD at Hopewell
- and there's
- Plaza affordable housing happening there. This is caddy corner to that but for some reason I Don't know.
- It's not shiny and new maybe that it just wasn't cared about or thought about in the same way But this
- could even have been an extension of Hopewell that It feels like really wasn't considered I had something
- else. Oh, I think you know it is hard when you're advocating against some entities that have a lot more
- access to the media and press releases and all those things
- These units had hand rental permits so they weren't I mean maybe they needed some long-term maintenance
- and it was ignored for the decades but they were legally rentable in our city and so like the narrative
- that like no one should ever be living like this is like this city gave Gave the landlord authority
- to rent these and I mean, I know there's like
- dead rats and things that definitely needed to be addressed. But I'm just saying the narrative that
- they should be torn down because they were so gross. It's like, well, we gave them permits, so they
- must have been good enough to live in, is what I'm saying. And they were good enough to live in. So
- I just wanted to put that out there, too. So thank you all for coming. And I think, too, a lot of us
- are in contact with you all and continue to ask for things and keep us updated whenever you want.
- Thank you any other comments from council I just want to say thank you for the comments regarding this
- it is tragic and I The last speaker I think really made some very salient points about how the intention
- of particular bodies that are not malicious but are working in a certain with certain tasks and priorities
- in mind are motivated to do
- Something that would be contrary to the interest of the general public in some case and I think that
- it is ironic that affordable housing exists here while we're trying to build it literally a block or
- so away So the council recognized comes my Rosenberger said the councils recognize this We made requests
- They weren't they didn't materialize But I'm looking forward to speaking with my colleagues some more
- about What we can possibly do and what our priorities are because clearly there are a lot of expenses
- that we're going to be looking forward to in the future not looking forward to in the in the sense of
- you know happily anticipating but there are expenses that we will need to make and we have affordable
- housing as our highest priority we say and
- So it is something that we need to obviously recognize and work toward in any way we can so Appreciate
- your comments Thank you to the members of the CIB for your presentation And so now let's go to the office
- of the city clerk clerk Bolton Welcome
- Okay, true confession. I'm not great with this So good evening. My name is Nicole Bolden. I'm the Bloomington
- City clerk Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to our budget presentation. I want to give
- you all a fair warning I'm going to try and talk fairly quickly Because I wanted to make sure that if
- you had any questions about the memo that I submitted to you You have time to also ask for that so in
- our office, we have five full-time staff members including the clerk and
- Our budget is going to see a roughly 5% change this year. Most of that is in the COLA increases that
- are in place for all staff members. I did not account for, and my apologies, for any step increases
- that we may see in seniority for clerk staff. So that might vary or change a bit prior to the final
- budget being presented. But I want to make sure you actually have that flagged.
- Other services now includes about $4,000 for insurance premiums that I think has been consistent for
- other departments where you've seen that and we've kept supplies flat We have over the last several
- years tried not to do major increases unless it was dictated by increases in supplies And we've tried
- very hard to do more with the same whenever possible. So we've continued that process in 2026
- You know the highlights we've talked about them a bit, but we have continued to update our legislative
- record We've kept the code up current and updated. We've also looked for a new codifier Part of that
- is so that we can actually get a faster turnaround on our city code and have fewer errors We've improved
- the boards and commissions recruitment. Thank you very much for adding that position last year We've
- seen some really amazing things come out of that
- program, and we've continued with our adjudication of parking citations and citation trends,
- tracking them. This is the role of the clerk's office. For all of you, I think you're at least vaguely
- familiar with what the clerk's office does. I joke just a bit.
- And when we talk about being the cornerstone stone of transparent accountable and accessible local government
- I do want to emphasize that that is not always just literally being in the physical space But we were
- talking about making sure that the records are available and apparent to the public making sure that
- we're responsive and Making sure that when people have questions about what the council did and when
- they did it whether it was last week or a hundred years ago we can actually get it to them and
- So these are our priorities and goals. We're going to continue the work for boards and commissions,
- archives, and records retention. We have a five-year plan for evaluating council records and preserving
- them. And then our financing and compliance is continuing to analyze and audit our citation appeal data.
- Key programs.
- Still more of the same. We're not adopting any new programs We've got all of our existing resources
- and we're going to continue in that space And this is our budget at a glance. It's largely flat and
- it's largely non-discretionary so numbers And our conclusion to the questions that I received from council
- members prior to today
- The reason you didn't get it until a few hours ago is I had some personal matters to attend to. And
- while the raw data was available in our office, we collect a lot of data for almost everything that
- we do. I did need some time to actually give you some context for that data. I didn't want to just send
- a bunch of numbers and have you look at it and say, great, that doesn't help us. So if you have time
- to look through the memo that we sent, it gives you a broad overview of the office and all of the positions.
- It also gives you a breakdown of each individual position in the office including our internship program
- for a question From one of the council members asked about the office being locked. We have tried to
- be in alignment with the administration City departments in this building there are over 10 departments
- Maybe 12 roughly most of them are actually locked throughout the day and have been for
- Over four years now if I'm correct Including when the council office was co-located with the clerk's
- office The signage has not changed the door has not changed in terms of it being locked So part of that
- is being an alignment with the rest of the city part of it is for safety reasons and part of it is to
- actually make sure that when we have upset or agitated folks who come in which we do have from time
- to time there's always somebody available and
- to actually be a witness or intervene if necessary, which is not always possible in a small office with
- a very limited staff. I think I just ripped through my entire presentation faster than I planned. So
- I am here for questions and more information. And I also am very lucky and grateful to have my Chief
- Deputy McDowell with me, Deputy Clerk Colleen Williamson, and Deputy Clerk Jennifer Crossley.
- Thank you for building Other questions for the clerk and council Councilmember council president. I'm
- sorry Thank You clerk Bolton, could you tell me the last time that you in the clerk's office did a wedding ah
- The last time I did a wedding was a few months ago And we actually have been discussing when we're going
- to get the office open back up again on a regular basis for performing weddings Right now we have a
- lot of council records that are spread over the space So I don't think most people would be thrilled
- to actually get married surrounded by boxes of aging records So when we get that under control and actually
- have an appropriate view on the
- scope of work, we can actually remove it from the space and start actually using it for performing weddings.
- Thank you. And asking to lead to my next question, which is if you were to think about
- currently the load of Of the clerk's office the excellent clerk's office who does wonderful work Thank
- you for all the work that you do when you think about their workload on a scale of one to ten Where
- would you where would you say they're sort of utilization rate is right now? Right now I think we're
- running at about nine point five In terms of utilization we are now
- At this moment just in the last couple of months fully staffed and not working on additional projects
- training supporting other staffs or offices that are understaffed or no stuff So right now we're actually
- fully able to work on all the work in the office without Some of the shortfalls that we've had in years past
- What would happen if we if we were to underfund the clerk's office by one position, for example What
- would the impact be on this on residents in Bloomington? what you would see would be a Loss of council
- records. So in years past there The office has historically been understaffed and or underfunded or
- underutilized so what we saw was when I came into office were
- Over 25% of the council meetings that didn't have minutes or memos You would also see the records retention,
- which right now there are council records that are Not to be too graphic
- but are covered in mold and feces in some of our storage units. Those are just some of the things that
- actually need to be handled. And it's not a one and done thing where you can clean it up and say,
- we're good. I'm still going, I'm sorry. But I do want to underscore also, you'd see a slowdown in services.
- So those parking ticket appeals that are handled, instead of being handled in three days, which is the
- median number right now, you would actually see it slow down to two or three weeks at a time. So the
- public would feel the impact in ways that are not like, ah,
- Trash can get picked up. But when you need the service It slows down or disappears. Thank you. I have
- a follow-up, but I'll ask it at my next chance. Okay Okay in the meantime, are there other questions?
- Councilman Rosemarie. Hi, thanks question about the cola And if it is divided out in some way, I think
- this is says personnel services 5% And is that I think the city was doing 2.7. Oh, yeah, I didn't
- Those are numbers that I got from the controller's office, but from the numbers I've seen so far It's
- going to be just in the base salary. Yes, but there are also differences in oh There are other costs
- that are associated with salary. So your total compensation per person is not just the base salary It's
- also additional things and I insurance costs. Thank you Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm for the questions I'm
- gonna ask one
- Go back to you president. Sorry Yeah, I was a thank you first for going through in great detail about
- your staff duties and Responsibilities is very helpful one thing that I really noticed brought my attention
- to this was the median parking appeal resolution time has dropped significantly from 15 or 13 days to
- On average now for the last couple of years. That's pretty astounding That is largely due to now staff
- having staff. Yes That can take that on As I see right both two deputy clerks one 75% of the time any
- other 25% It's important to me and I would also mention that It seems to me that we've been much more
- efficient with boards and commissions and
- Thanks to chief deputy clerk cross Lee who's done an outstanding job Are we in your mind? Most efficient.
- I mean are there is there still is there still? Efficiency is it you ask Councilmember sorry would like
- to know if we if this is optimized right now or we could even
- there are there ways in which we as counsel maybe could step up and and Provide greater efficiencies
- for you. For instance. It is a better like I don't see herding cats here on your Documented duties,
- but that's one of them anyway, if you'd like to speak on that or you want to that is a
- Loaded question. So I will say no, we're not fully optimized I think we can always do better and we're
- still exploring ways that we can actually streamline and be more effective in our roles because Ultimately,
- the goal of the office is to serve the public and to make sure that 50 years from now We're usually
- looking at things through a 50 year lens. Like what's gonna happen in 50 years? How will this actually
- play out? so
- The goal is to make sure that we're getting better throughout time and that it's replicable and that
- it's repeatable. So a lot of it is we can do so much better, but I don't know how much further that
- will be. So to that, and then as far as the council being more helpful in making the job easier to do,
- it will be always the things that I always ask of you all, which is, you know, respond to emails,
- Answer phone calls bring cookies the usual Yeah It seems like one measure would be boards commission
- sometimes because they were lacking a Complete commission didn't reach quorum and now it's just my assumption
- I don't know but they seem to be I mean just anecdotally they seem to be able to reach quorum or I haven't
- heard many problems now we didn't we're not in control of attendance and
- We are in control over and there are appointments. There are ongoing issues with attendance and Membership,
- but if you have deeper questions about that, I'm sure Jennifer would be happy to answer them Great.
- Thank you. Would you like to? Councilmember Stuspert, I Just want to officially yield my three minutes
- of question time to councilmember. Sorry if he wants to I
- My follow-up question was just about so then thinking sort of following up on what Councilman Rallo
- just asked when you look at the rest of the city And particularly council but but any other operations
- within the city Do you see duplication with things that the clerk should be doing could be doing and
- is doing? Over Yes Could you please specify?
- I'd prefer not to Well, okay Let me let me rephrase I mean it's not it's not totally I think there are
- duplications and layers but to be clear the clerk is a separately elected office so there may be duties
- that are being handled through the administration but appropriately they are supervised through the
- administration and they are speaking for
- Other departments as opposed to the clerk's office while speaking for the city is not speaking in the
- same way Similarly, there are duties that in the past council staff have done that have traditionally
- belonged in the clerk's office It is not now
- It's a duplication of effort and or time, but that is the choice that you have as a body have made and
- that is absolutely your right to do so. I do think moving forward, you have had this opportunity to
- look at your staffing and how your office is organized. It is entirely up to you as to how you follow
- through and what you continue to do over the next few years, but I do think that you have gone, you've
- had nine staff members get hired
- and leave the city over the last six years. So it might be worth looking at what you're doing and deciding
- if there are duties that can be spread out or moved into other places. And that's why I didn't.
- really want to answer that, because I didn't want to. That's exactly what I was trying to get at,
- which is, I mean, obviously, in this second, we're going to talk about council budget. I mean, I think
- that that's a relevant question. That's where I started with trying to understand how much workload
- you feel like we're having. But I think there's another side of this, which is I've been talking with
- department heads with different, I basically asked the same question across the budget, which is, what
- happens if this position doesn't exist, if we don't backfill this position, or if we just eliminate
- a position?
- And what's interesting is, in a lot of cases, one of the answers that comes up is, well, then who's
- going to deal with Commission X? It's kind of like a fascinating answer that comes up a lot in a lot
- of different spaces. And so it seems to me that we
- do a sort of disproportionate amount of work with commissions and boards. But then we've created this
- new position. So I'm just sort of interested if that can be better leveraged, if that can be changed.
- And then if we were to lean more on those things, like what that would mean for the staffing in the
- clerk's office, budget, et cetera. So not enough time to answer that question now. But so it sort of
- ended up being a quamant more than a question. But I'll send that to you in writing as well to follow
- up. OK. If I may, I know there was time seated.
- Absolutely can There was a study that was done that said they needed to have one person take ownership
- of the boards and commissions to take the broad overview and look at appointments communicating with
- the public Applications all of those things and so the council looked at that study looked at the position
- what was needed what the public was saying they wanted and they actually created that position and put
- in the clerk's office which was recommended I think
- Personally did not grasp the breadth and depth of the issues related to boards and commissions despite
- having been next door to it or part of it for years and now watching and listening to what ownership
- really looks like in terms of developing training for staff members for the commissioners themselves
- working with legal department the mayor's office Communications everything that's involved in boards
- and commissions. It is an enormous job and I appreciate the fact that
- The person who's doing the work actually has a background in communications and marketing the person
- who's actually doing it is already deeply deeply nerdy and Involved in municipal government at a level
- that most people are not so yes There are other people who are doing it, but this is her whole position
- so for other departments when they have staff liaisons or people who are doing it that is not their
- only purpose it is a portion of their larger job and
- Whereas for this department that is the job Does that help Good. Thank you very much If there are no
- further questions, we'll go to the public on the office of the city clerk budget if there's anyone in
- council chambers Anyone in line mr. Allen, okay, we're back to council for Any other questions or final comment?
- Seeing any I just like to say thank you and your staff for your service to the public and your invaluable
- help to the council We really appreciate it Okay, let's go now to That was a good segue that discussion
- for the office of the common council Council attorney Allen
- Allen interim attorney to the extent that the clerk suggested that I'm redundant. I'm happy to accept
- that So and I just really appreciate her taking that on Additionally, I would also like to thank all
- my full-time staff for joining us tonight It's been wonderful In all seriousness the council's office
- says you all are aware well aware, but maybe the public isn't as aware has a fairly
- broad sense of duty and I do want to take a minute to At the start of this just to shout out some of
- the excellent customer service that's been done over the years by council staff I think that the primary
- visibility that council staff has is Informing and making this accessible for the public and to the
- extent that the prior staff Set up systems and has been trying to incrementally improve that over the
- years I really applaud them because at the end of the day
- All we are is to make one, the council be able to do their jobs as effectively as possible, but also
- make sure that public meetings, the information that's flowing through the council office is accessible
- as possible. Just a little bit about the office generally. It's budgeted for three full-time staff,
- two attorneys, one legal assistant slash researcher. The attorneys are also your chief administrators.
- The changes in the budget for those three positions, which currently are vacant. I am interim. I'm serving
- on a contract role.
- basis at this point, so a lot of hiring to be done. The budget change then for 2026 appropriately is
- mostly salaries. So not only cost of living increase, but understanding that these are open positions
- and to bring it in line with the potential ranges. So if you get experienced candidates, you could actually
- offer them the full range of salaries. I don't expect that you will actually end up spending that full
- amount necessarily.
- but it needs to have some flexibility to allow the council to hire appropriately for the next year.
- As I mentioned, the key budget needs for 2027, hiring and retaining personnel, continuing to enhance
- public accessibility and dialogue, which I'll talk about just a little bit, and then continuing the
- great work you all already do with community grants that improve quality of life, and also getting that
- message out and exactly what those do, I think, would be a great enhancement to the council office.
- In terms of 2026 highlights, one, also in great seriousness, thank you to the clerk staff and the city
- staff for helping aid us during this time of transition. It's been no doubt a challenging year for the
- council office. However, people have stepped up, have aided us, and have been very understanding. And
- that's obviously when the city works best is when we're all working as a team in the same direction.
- The council itself has issued $500,000 in Jack Hopkins social service grants which end up being in large
- part some of the lifeblood that goes into our great nonprofits providing services throughout the community
- Additionally, although these were allocated last year the $500,000 for the pedestrian safety committee
- committee on improving Access alternative transportation methods and safety in that regard also a great
- community service that committee is set to meet
- at the end of this year, another $500,000 is proposed in this budget for those grants as well. And then
- also this year, you know, just the council, this is more your highlight that I'm stealing from mine,
- so thank you. The utilizing of deliberation sessions to foster not just understanding but information
- sharing between the entire city, so with council. And I think we could go further in that regard and
- particularly with future business, but it's something that has been
- It's good to see that come back and see the council working together in that dialogue. And to that end,
- enhancing the public access and dialogue is important to continue for 2027. So one of the things, obviously,
- there's the public documents accessibility piece, which has been widely publicized and understood, trying
- to make those documents conform with current ADA law.
- And to bring them up, although that's been delayed by a year It's still an important thing and the clerk's
- office has made great strides in helping with that and making that a much easier transition And so to
- the extent that council staff can further that and further that with your packets and information I
- think that that's a great thing to do. I think also rethinking and taking time to be really strategic
- about how meetings operate and
- and whether people are getting the most out of them. Are we bringing everybody to the table? Are we
- making it as easy as possible for people to be here, to comment, to participate in the process? And
- the wonderful thing about having kind of a, I don't wanna say reset, but a new opportunity in the office
- is to take a very deliberative look at those issues.
- And and I think continuing to enhance the opportunities for dialogue and collaboration So those could
- look like on top of the current deliberation sessions that are happening certain consensus building
- activities Having public meetings having public information sessions and utilizing even the space that
- council has now So council's office has obviously moved out of the clerk's office It's on it said showers
- west on the other side of the building It does have the capability to host certain public meetings
- potentially have the public there have time
- that they can engage with certain members of council as long as you're not violating open door law.
- And then, I mean, this seems like more of a high-minded bullet point to improve the quality of life
- for residents, but I think at base, that's exactly what our grants do and the council grants do.
- And so, to the extent that, again, the council staff in the past has done a great job of administering
- these grants to the extent possible and with the support of city staff,
- And continuing to support those policies, but also looking at reviewing Everything that comes before
- council with an eye toward the comprehensive sustainability practices that that the city has adopted
- So whether that be the comprehensive plan the sustainability plan etc being a little bit more intentional
- about utilizing those in decision-making and how Legislation is getting put forward in addition to the
- grants in addition to being a service to public service providers
- And I think, again, taking this time, basically, I'm just gonna summarize these three bullet points
- in the following, which is taking this time to make sure that this office is working exactly how you
- want it to be and making sure it's working appropriately for the public. There are plenty of strategies
- that we could do. I think one of the things is just making, this is my own thing, so please just understand this.
- Making the language itself accessible to the public what we're talking about whether we're talking about
- a tiff bond whether we're talking about Traditional appropriation ordinances or anything like that trying
- to make that that language in the presentation as accessible as possible to the public so that they
- understand exactly what's happening who's on the hook and
- How much it's gonna cost them things like that. That's kind of what we're talking about here And then
- I think also honestly just celebrating what council does as individuals but also collectively and so
- having a better external communication strategy to work with the administration or Individually to promote
- those things and then also internal communication So making sure the flow of information between the
- council and the administrative staff are working very well So everybody in city staff understands what's going on
- Happy to take questions, of course Are there questions for us? Other questions for mr. Allen I'll go
- ahead and ask a question It was the memo and these goals was that mostly written by you or was that
- in collaboration with a subset of council members or
- Yeah, it was taking a lot. It was mostly by me It was taking the priorities from previous years and
- kind of enhancing them in terms of what the goals were So so that was where the memo came from Okay,
- I don't necessarily object to any of them. I was just curious. Thanks other questions Okay, see none
- then we'll go to the public Mr. Allen do you want to
- See if anyone's online to ask you a question or to make a comment Anyone in chambers No one in public
- Anyone public? Okay, so we're back to the council for comments on our budget of the common council Yes,
- come council members like
- Thank you, I just want to say I am very very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with attorney
- Allen and learn from him and I Don't know how many times I'm gonna get the opportunity to say that but
- I am definitely going to say this on this budget He presented so thank you Councilmember Stossberg I
- I think that this was maybe the clearest presentation of the challenges that council office has had
- over the last six, seven months. And I also want to send a huge thank you to attorney Allen because
- without him, I don't know how things would have stayed together because he has done a phenomenal job
- serving so many different
- roles that are very clearly needed from meeting facilitation to legal advice and services to assistance
- with legislation and all of those pieces and This job that we're doing up here like sometimes it might
- not look like a lot but it's a lot and one of the ways that it can be managed successfully is to have a
- an attorney who helps us figure out the law and the legal aspects of what it is that we're doing what
- it is that we're being asked and what are the consequences to that in terms of legal ramifications and
- all of those pieces and I just I can't like Overstate that enough. I guess how much I appreciate Him
- having helped us with that this year and how challenging it is as a council to
- You know make sure that we have all of our eyes dotted and all of our t's crossed When we have one person
- who's helping us do that as opposed to three? So he's just done a phenomenal job. Thanks Thank you any
- any other customer and Piva Smith Yes, I also want to express my gratitude to mr. Allen We
- You know a very difficult we're in a difficult period for the council. We have no staff Mr. Allen, of
- course is a contract attorney Administrator and we very much appreciate the work that he's done and
- we're very lucky that somebody with his expertise was available but I do think that you know to put
- a Positive spin on this the fact that we have no staff
- is an opportunity for us to rethink the office and to rethink, to think about, okay, why is it we found
- ourselves in a position of having no staff? And how can we organize the work in a way that is more beneficial
- for the public, for council members, and for the staff members themselves to have a balance in their,
- their work and their life and to have clearer expectations and reporting lines and that job satisfaction
- that I think may have been lacking in the past. So, I'm choosing to see it as an opportunity and I think
- we, for the rest of the year, we hopefully will hire somebody in the top position and have an opportunity
- to rethink the other positions to get back on solid ground in 2016.
- I mean 27 Other comments I would also like to I guess third or fourth our gratitude to mr. Allen for
- your your work and I'd also like to extend thanks to our council president is sorry for your work without
- of well any staff for a while, but without full staff for your
- tenure as president of the council and I I did want to make I think a rather modest request since Mayor
- Thompson is here Regarding council budget and that is and my colleagues as well that I was very grateful
- that Mayor Thompson increased the Jack Hopkins budget to $500,000 and
- I know we have a lot of priorities in the city and we have a lot of difficulty in terms of Our challenges
- related to revenues and so forth but I think that it would be Prudent to at least keep parity or keep
- up with inflation every year With the Jack Hopkins budget because I think that it tends to fall behind
- after a few years and that could be that's consequential
- even increasing 3% $15,000 would be equivalent to funding one organization generally If inflation is
- 5% next year, that's 25,000. That's that's a significant amount of money for for one needy organization
- and having served on the committee on the committee it's challenging so if we could at least keep pace
- Although the needs are greater
- Then half a million certainly under the circumstances At least if we could keep pace, I think that would
- be a good effort so With that let's go now to the office of the mayor and Deputy mayor Gretchen Knapp
- welcome Happy budget has council members who look like party continues I
- Gretchen F deputy mayor very happy to be presenting the budget for 2027 the proposal for the office
- of the mayor a Little bit about us here. We are some of us along with our most popular staffer Probably
- the most popular staffer in all the city hall deputy dog We currently have eight full-time staff. There
- is one open position, which is nine positions total Probably could have worded that a little better
- and just for comparison when we took office the I looked at the 2023
- office of the mayor, office structure. They also had nine positions, but it was structured a little
- differently. There was one part-time position, and one of the positions was there was an additional
- cabinet-level position, which we eliminated. So we had a lot of questions about our staffing levels
- in advance, and I'll talk more about that later. Our budget change from this year's budget is about
- a 6% increase, and I'll go into those details as well, but it's down to just a few things that are impacting that.
- So the office of the mayor is involved in a very broad range of activities, both within City
- Hall, externally, very often as a bridge between City Hall and external stakeholders, constituents.
- I've just highlighted a few highlights from the past year, and I'm more than happy to go into detail
- on any of these during the Q&A, but when I timed myself going into detail of all of them, it was too
- long. So I'll just pull a couple out that you may know may be less apparent or that relate to questions
- you've asked.
- One is, I think you're aware, obviously with the mayor's background and her deep involvement with housing
- and working on Hopewell South, asking for the development process review to help us figure, solve the
- question that was the subject of a cabinet leadership retreat, which was what is standing in the way
- of making Bloomington a housing production machine? What are the obstacles? And that audit will
- Has showing us lots of ways that we can make our process better and you'll get a presentation from that
- and from planning in the future They are also looking at the firm that did that analysis is also analyzing
- Conflicts in the udio. So there are places in the udio where we say we want this and another place where
- we say But we also want that and those two things cannot be done at the same time. So they're gonna
- help us with that
- Homelessness response the addition of the city homelessness response coordinator has been a huge benefit
- to the entire city organization Every single department works on homelessness deals with homelessness
- either root causes or impacts every week if not every day and This is the only position in the city
- that does nothing but work on homelessness and it is largely a coordination position this person is
- not a frontline responder and
- But what they ensure is that city staff and the service providers who are out there doing the groundwork
- that we are aligned in our efforts strategically at the very top and in our daily activities that we
- are rowing in the same direction and Addressing issues immediately before they grow and become unmanageable.
- So when we came in we had
- 12 encampments on city property and some very significant private property encampments. We don't have
- any of those now that are major, and that is because we are staying on top of them and able to work
- with service providers when we hear, hey, a parks person was out and saw a couple tents in this area.
- So then Brian can contact the service providers and say, can someone go out and see if those folks need
- services and how can we help them?
- and prevent that from becoming a dangerous situation. So, what does coordination look like? Some of
- these are taken from things that we've learned from other cities that we've asked or visited to say,
- what are you doing that's working so well and how can we copy it? A 10 to 15 minute daily check-in between
- city staff, that means
- DROs downtown cleanup crews mih Rep from heading home attends that as well and that is anything that
- popped up overnight or the previous day What do we need to know to be prepared to address it today?
- Which is very helpful at times like these when the county has cleared a major encampment There is also
- a weekly check-in that began with just city staff and then eventually nonprofit
- Providers and service providers join that meeting and now that time is largely being used for streets
- disability discussions There's a monthly meeting with cabinet level and key personnel to make sure that
- our top-level strategic actions are aligned with what's happening out in the field and and on the streets
- every day and there's much more that goes on with that, but that has been a huge
- Asset to to everyone in the city to have one-stop shopping if you hear something about homelessness
- If you have a need if you have a question if you need a contact of a resident or a business calls There
- is one person that they know that we can send them to who will take action on that We also do a lot
- of work with capital projects planning the controller will speak later about the efforts to create a
- capital plan very excited about that
- I want to talk a little bit about the 911 analysis that is happening with the law enforcement action
- partnership or leap So this was negotiated in 2024 Thank You councilmember Piedmont Smith who advocated
- for that and put into the 2025 budget and we sometimes hear Why did you wait so long to do it? So I
- wanted to give a little background I think many of you know that dispatch has really struggled with
- with retention, and I have to give a huge shout out to dispatch staff who really laid the roadmap for
- us in 2024 about what we need to do to make it a better place that can retain workers and keep them.
- So they got a whole new work schedule in July of 2025, a new leadership structure, new leaders in place,
- interim leaders starting in October 25, and was made permanent in January of this year. And so we really
- wanted to wait to start this project before we asked
- dispatched to do more to stabilize that department. And then we had to wait for our partners at LEAP
- to be available to actually start the work. So they just became available earlier this summer, and they
- have the data, and soon we will be learning more about how we can integrate alternative response into 911.
- We also have community survey, branding website, union negotiations, lots of other topics that I can
- tell you more about as you are interested in hearing about them. Priorities and goals remain focusing
- on increasing housing, reducing homelessness and addressing the impacts, supporting our asset protection
- that we're all interested in and critical capital projects.
- Improving city communications through a new website and other methods modernizing city operational systems
- which you'll hear more about from the controller and from HR in particular the need for an HR is and
- HR information system and a better accounting program that can talk to each other would be great I can't
- stress enough the amount of the lack of talking to each other between those
- to right now, there is no HR information system. So for example, when we're in union negotiations and
- someone says, what if we increase certifications by X percentage, we have no way of calculating that.
- It has to be done manually, and it is incredibly time consuming and hard to figure out, to forecast
- and predict, much less to just do payroll. Payroll is a nightmare.
- and then continuing to bolster public safety both in its traditional forms and alternative public safety.
- So there are many new laws that keep popping up and we will continue to work with our partners to figure
- out how to best address those and support the providers who are out there on the ground providing that
- and advocating for all rowing in the same direction on a shared vision and service area boundaries.
- Continuing to develop Hopewell can't wait to see some shovels in the ground there and moving on to the
- next section and also implementing the lessons that we've learned as learning by doing as being an entity
- going through this process and learning what developers go through and what the obstacles are practically
- to developing affordable housing Continuing to work on building a safe city rewiring our city systems
- launching new communication tools Challenges again the technology is
- What what happened? I will say that I've been impressed at the city in my time here at the number of
- MacGyvers We have here and people really are great at finding workarounds But these are very people
- intensive workarounds and as we enter a time when we have to be very careful about staff Those really
- aren't options anymore Funding our infrastructure dreams also a problem But those are probabilities
- where we can collaborate with the county do some capital planning and continue working on how can we
- make visible progress and
- So personnel, last year you had kindly added a part-time emergency management specialist to work on
- building safety, starting with City Hall. We turned that to a contract position for a number of reasons.
- One, we were concerned about SEA-1, but also the person that we wanted to hire has some other obligations
- with the city, and we wanted them to keep being able to do that, to serve on the utility service board,
- and to be able to take on other clients. So it worked out nicely.
- The big changes, so that $50,000 moved from personnel to other services, which is a big chunk of why
- that number looks so high and why our personnel number is flat. And I did detail in the memo where the
- other money came from, but essentially $5,000 to support the winter shelter, which is more
- easily administered through the general fund and the mayor's office than hand and HUD rules. And some
- other things that I can tell you about on request.
- That's it. Thank you, and I welcome all of your questions Thank You deputy mayor now, we'll go to questions
- now from council Any questions for the office of the mayor's budget Councilmember Stossberg a Little
- bit more about what you ended with with the moving that
- part-time position to be a contracted position because the person you wanted to hire was on the utility
- service board? Is that what you said? That's one piece of the puzzle. That was not the entire puzzle.
- So to back up a little bit, when we first started talking about this position, we talked with IU and
- other places who have more experience with these kinds of roles. Should it be full-time? Should it be
- part-time? Should it be consultant? And the advice was either consultant or part-time. And at the time,
- we thought a part-time person would be better.
- On staff because that would allow someone to get to know all of the units in the city and they they'd
- need to have those connections As we interviewed for that role We did have many candidates who were
- from not from Bloomington or even from out of state and we had candidates from inside Bloomington who
- already knew the city very well and so both of these present situations where you don't really want
- to ask someone to move from another state for a part-time job that if funding is cut and
- You know first in first out might be one of the ones to get cut and also if you have someone who on
- deck who already knows many of the
- Issues of governmental life and municipal life and all of the people involved that that's a great candidate
- but there can be a conflict of interest if you have someone who's working for the city and serving a
- paid position on a board and Our candidate that we really wanted not only was on a board and serving
- well that we wanted to keep but also had the opportunity by Becoming consultant to then form an LLC
- and take on other clients. So it's kind of a win-win We're still getting all of the great work done.
- We have a they've been on the job for about a month
- Now and moving through the list of things that we decide to accomplish in our first check-in He said
- he thought we could get through more than what we had put in our scope of work For the first year then
- we had planned so all good on that front Other questions from council councilmember Piedmont Smith Yes,
- so since You're planning a new
- planning a first time human resources information system. I'm shocked that it doesn't exist. And of
- course a new financial system. I'm wondering what change management techniques are employed by the city
- when new systems are put into place. As somebody who worked at IU for 27 years, systems were always
- changing and those changes were not always managed well for the employees. So what strategies does the
- administration use
- Well that's a great question and I think the starting point is listening to staff when they say either
- we can make this work or we can't make it work. That's step one. If you have a system that people have
- been making work and they can continue to make it work, you lose a lot of efficiency just in the process
- of adopting and learning how to use a new tool. In this case, since we have no tool for HR and the financial
- system, if anyone of you have ever tried to use it,
- very opaque even to someone with a little bit of an accounting background. I think it's fair to say
- whatever systems we use will be better in terms of being easier to train people on, but there will need
- to be very in-depth training and it is a great opportunity to make sure that the processes that we're
- following also make sense.
- For example, is it the right thing to do to have someone fill out a word form for a contract cover letter
- turn it into a PDF Attach it to an email with a bunch of other things and mail it to email it to someone
- to get something approved The answer to that is no So I think there will be a great sigh of relief and
- it is generally felt throughout the city that these are both
- really big needs so there will be growing pains and I'm sure the office of the controller and HR will
- be working very carefully on those transitions, but The relief factor I think will provide a huge will
- be the wind at our backs as we go through this implementation Thank you for the questions Seeing none
- we'll go to the public
- anyone is in council chambers who would like to comment on the office of the mayor's budget or online
- Please use your raised hand function Any takers? Mr. No one. Okay, seeing none then we'll come back
- to council for final comment Okay seeing no comments, thank you very much for your presentation I
- Moving on to the Office of Controller, Mr. McKim. Welcome. Good evening, council members. My name is
- Jeff McKim, City Controller, and I was hoping to introduce Deputy Controller Cheryl Gilliland, but she
- just stepped out for a moment to pick up her charger. The Office of the Controller exists to ensure
- that the city's finances are accurate, transparent, well-managed, and positioned for long-term sustainability.
- We have 12 full-time employees, including me, and much of the work of the controller's office happens
- behind the scenes in support of the entire city government. Our staff make sure that over 1,000 city
- employees are paid accurately and on time, that vendors are properly vetted and paid promptly, that
- receipts and payments are recorded and accounted for accurately, that bank accounts are reconciled daily,
- and that attempts at fraud are identified and prevented.
- We maintain the city's financial system and budgets, oversee purchasing and procurement, and provide
- the financial controls and processes that allow departments across the city to do their work. Before
- I go further, I do want to recognize somebody who's played an extraordinary role in that work.
- This Friday, our purchasing manager, Julie Martindale Long, will retire after 36 years of service to the city.
- That is an exceptional amount of institutional knowledge, expertise, and dedication to public service.
- I just want to recognize Julie and thank her for many years of expert and dedicated service, and wish
- her a well-deserved retirement. As you know, I began serving as controller on January 11th. There's
- certainly been a substantial learning curve, and the transition has not been without its challenges.
- But throughout that transition, we have maintained the city's day-to-day financial operations without
- significant disruption.
- One of the most immediate challenges we inherited was the city's delayed annual financial reporting
- and audit schedule, a situation that had developed over a number of years prior to this administration.
- And as a result, we've effectively had to complete two audit cycles in a single year.
- We successfully completed the city's 2024 ACFR and audit and laid out April and then immediately had
- to pivot to doing the gap financial reporting and audit process for 2025 We're currently on track to
- complete that process by September 30th And our audit exit conference is already scheduled for September
- 22nd with councilmember Stossberg participating on behalf of the City Council
- Second significant challenge is the retirement of our purchasing manager, which I mentioned earlier
- This is a critical citywide position responsible for overseeing procurement across the civil city Not
- simply within the controller's office with Julie's retirement. We're losing 36 years of purchasing experience
- Recognizing the importance of maintaining continuity in this function Our staff has been cross training
- on key purchasing responsibilities and we currently have an active recruitment underway for her replacement
- And then finally, we've devoted substantial time and resources to understanding and preparing for the
- restructuring of Indiana's local income tax system, resulting from SEA 1 and HEA 1210. These are complex
- changes that will have significant implications for city revenues, budget, and long-term fiscal planning.
- Additional legislative changes remain as well. So while much of our attention this year has been devoted
- to maintaining continuity catching up on financial reporting Managing a significant personnel transition
- and responding to major changes in state law I believe we're also beginning to put the office in a stronger
- position for the years ahead
- I want to talk for a couple of minutes about some things that I believe we need to accomplish for 2027.
- One thing you will notice that's not on this list is OBB. But hold on, I do think there is a path forward
- on OBB, which I will discuss after I go through these priorities. If I run out of time, please ask me.
- So what are our goals for next year? I've already talked about the struggles with getting caught up
- with the audited ACFRs and how we're now and will continue to be caught up on the ACFR with the deadline
- of September 30th. However, the Government Financial Officers Association standard for timely financial
- reporting is to issue the report within six months of the end of the fiscal year, which means June 30th.
- Timely financial information is important because the information becomes less useful to policymakers,
- investors, and the public as it ages. Our goal going forward is to consistently meet that June 30th
- standard, three months ahead of the deadline, and as we continue to prove our year-end close and audit
- processes, look for opportunities to complete the ACFR even earlier.
- We also intend for the first time to produce a popular annual financial report or PAFR. This is also
- an established practice in government financial reporting recognized by the Government Finance Officers
- Association. And while the ACFR is necessarily a detailed and technical accounting document, the PAFR
- presents the financial information in a shorter or accessible format using plain language, charts, and
- graphics to explain where the city's money comes from, how it's spent, and the city's overall financial
- condition.
- One of the major goals is to develop a more systematic and long-term approach to capital planning We've
- been working with our municipal advisors at Reedy Financial Group to develop a capital improvement plan
- And we now have a first iteration based on input from our department heads about their anticipated capital
- needs This is very much a living process. We'll continue to refine it as needs costs and
- and priorities change, but it gives us a framework for evaluating and prioritizing projects across the
- organization, particularly important as we work within the new revenue and borrowing constraints of SEA 1.
- And this follows on to some comments that the deputy mayor made we are increasingly constrained by an
- aging enterprise resource Planning or ERP system that supports some of the city's most critical functions
- including finance HR payroll and utilities
- The city has used New World for more than 15 years. It has served us adequately and it continues to
- receive necessary security and compliance updates. But the city's operations and the technology available
- to support them have evolved considerably over those 15 years, while the capabilities of our existing
- system have not kept pace. I want to emphasize that this is not the case of a system that's fundamentally
- broken. It works.
- The problem is the amount of staff time and manual effort required to make it work. From the controller's
- perspective, routine financial processes involve far more manual intervention than they should.
- Reports and data extracts frequently require substantial reformatting before they can be used for budgets,
- state gateway reporting, audits, or other purposes. Invoices have to be entered manually. Payroll requires
- significant manual processing. Financials aren't integrated with the human resources information system,
- which requires more time consuming manual processes. Vendors and residents have very limited self-service
- capabilities.
- Our ability to categorize and analyze revenues and expenditures is constrained by the structure of the
- chart of accounts rather than allowing us to tag and analyze transaction across multiple dimensions,
- which comes into play when we're talking about OBV. I am definitely running late, so I'm gonna have
- to move on. Another goal, as you know, the convention center lease rental bonds are supported by food
- and beverage.
- tax revenues, local income tax revenues were also pledged as a backup, which helped the city obtain
- more favorable financing terms. At the time the bonds were issued, the council was told we would establish
- a revenue stabilization fund equal to one year of lease payments, providing an additional buffer in
- the unlikely event that F&B tax revenues were insufficient to make a payment. We now intend to fulfill
- that commitment by establishing an interest-bearing revenue stabilization account with the bond trustee
- and transferring the equivalent of two lease
- from the Food and Beverage Tax Fund into that account. If those reserves are never needed for stabilization,
- they will ultimately be used to make the final two lease payments. This accomplishes two things. First,
- it provides an additional layer of protection should we ever need to rely on the lit backup pledge.
- And second, it provides a clearer picture of the actual available balance in the Food and Beverage Tax Fund.
- The controller's budget has been reduced by $250,000, which has been moved to the surety bond proceeds
- fund. The 2027 budget request includes a $500,000 transfer from the surety bonds proceeds fund to the
- fiber connectivity fund. As part of our agreement with Meridium doing business as M Street fiber, we're
- required to deposit $1 million total in the fiber connectivity fund.
- which funds half the costs of connecting low-income households to the network. For the past two years,
- we've transferred $250,000 from the general fund for this purpose. However, this year, we're paying
- the remaining balance of the commitment out of the surety bonds proceeds fund, which was created by
- you to receive $1 million in proceeds from the surety bond called due to failure by the Meridian
- subcontractor, AEG, to properly install fiber within the city limits.
- With respect to services, we are working with our municipal advisors on several issues, including overall
- financial planning, capital improvement planning, and in particular, analyzing and preparing for the
- impacts of income tax changes. We also continue to use the services of our GAP compiler to convert our
- fund accounting system to the GAP financial reports required for the ACFR and audit. We don't expect
- to see any reduction in these needs.
- In the past the city has used two different municipal advisors extensively and we found ourselves using
- one of them primarily and so we'll be closing out in an existing three hundred thousand dollar encumbrance
- from an existing open purchase order with one Municipal advisor but to ensure that we have the funding
- to deal with all the upcoming financial requirements our budget proposal adds a hundred nine thousand
- to the services line so that we can ensure that we have the support to continue to evolve our financial
- plan capital improvement plan and prepare for lit restructuring
- And I am out of time, so thank you very much, and I am here to answer any questions that you have. How
- much time would you require? Another minute or so? Yeah, that would be great. Okay, well...
- Question time. All right. For three minutes. Great. Why don't you proceed, then? Well, then, I did want
- to say that I did find out in reanalyzing our budget yesterday, I did find some lines that I can cut,
- so when we submit, we can...
- reduce that increase to $58,510. And so finally, what I will take the opportunity to do then is move
- back to outcome-based budgeting. As you know, we did not move forward this year with an OBB project.
- With me being new in the job and learning the financial system, with the amount of manual work that
- needed to be done with our financial system and other priorities, including two audits in one year,
- accessibility mandates, and a new state budgeting application,
- All that combined with the feedback that we received from council that the work done last year was not
- useful in providing you with a more informative budget process, we decided to suspend OBB and instead
- engage in a broader discussion with council about shared priorities. We communicated that to the fiscal
- committee early on and the council engaged in a subsequent discussion of priorities which the administration
- used in formulating this year's budget. However, I do think there is a path to success if the council
- still wants to use an OBB framework.
- That approach would require a project charter that defines what the minimum viable product is, a council
- administration working group that would be very hands-on, and a pilot or phasing approach that would
- allow for a limited number of mutually agreed-upon programs or priorities crossing at least two departments.
- The pilot should test the proposed data structures, measures, crosswalks, reporting processes, and public
- presentation before those requirements are imposed citywide.
- Remain an enthusiastic supporter of an outcome based budgeting approach. So I Think like I said, I think
- there is a path forward So in conclusion the office of the controllers budget and plan for 2027 focuses
- on strengthening our financial transparency Investing wisely in the city's long-term infrastructure
- and systems and preparing Bloomington for the fiscal changes that lie ahead. Thank you for listening
- Thank you controller Kim. So now we'll go to questions from council councilman Piedmont Smith Yes Mr.
- McKim, even though you had extra time it was kind of fast about the outcome-based budgeting So I just
- want to follow up make sure I understand So will the ability to track expenditures in order to implement
- outcome-based budgeting be a mandatory criterion for any new financial management system that you select and
- Yes, and let me you know come back to kind of what the obstacle with the current system is like I said
- It's not that there is anything fundamentally broken about it. We accurately characterize and store
- transactions we can accurately output them the problem is that the whole reporting framework of the
- existing system is just so clunky that everything takes and
- an enormous amount of time and manual data cleaning, manual reformatting of reports, and we lack the
- ability to have any kind of consistent data pipeline from one system to another. So the ability to report
- both accurately but also quickly and in a flexible format so that that data can be extracted and pipelined
- into other systems
- Absolutely essential. I mean, yes if we did not have that ability to to To report in a more flexible
- and efficient manner, there'd be no point in doing it The short answer is yes. It is absolutely a central
- criterion okay, and Because it went so fast. Can you go back and talk about what steps you envision
- next year to? Take us closer to OBB well, so
- Don't even know that it needs to wait till next year. I think what what I thought the really the kind
- of Initial steps that we would need to take if the council was Interested we first of all have to develop
- some sort of project charter that really that says what is your definition of success? What is your
- what is a? Minimum viable product I think was the term that was used in one of the questions
- from councilmember Asari
- We need to know that kind of understand what that looks like in advance. I think we also need to have
- hands-on working group of both administration and Council members to make sure that we're not this is
- not something where you can kind of give direction and say go off and do and then hope we come back
- with something that works it is something that would need some kind of really fairly
- Intensive I guess is the best word but hands on and then the third is just is a phasing structure that
- lets us pilot something that And that doesn't have to be at budget time I mean that reporting that that
- piloting could certainly be at a stage much earlier than budgeting
- So I think if we had those three things, I think there is a path forward It is still going to be until
- we're able to upgrade the financial system It is still going to be still going to be stuck with the
- clunkiness of the existing system and doing a lot of manual reformatting of data as it comes out Thank
- you Further questions from council councilmember Flaherty. Thank you
- We don't hear presentations from Bloomington Transit or the Housing Authority anymore because we don't
- approve their budgets But one thing with Bloomington Transit that we did commit some years ago with
- the economic development lit was an annual appropriation To support among other things rapid
- fleet electrification Can you remind me? Does that is that through the end of 2027 that that commitment
- correct that this budget includes the last payment of that commitment and
- The ED lit as it currently exists sunsets at the end of 2028 essentially a year later. Is that right?
- Correct Have there been any conversations between the mayor's administration and? limiting transit either
- the board or it's its director about that about what the implications of The final year of the the prior
- commitment that was made being next year like what happens when if that money isn't there in 2028 What
- they're using it for? What needs they have that kind of thing?
- I do have notes on that that I Pulled up because I thought this might come up. So What they used it
- for was seed money for electric buses and charging infrastructure on the new facility It's never been
- operational money. They've never used it for that Microtransit might have been an exception, but it
- was more strategic to use it for to increase the federal funding match essentially from
- from the feds for electric and charging so They Here's a quote the city stepped up with the five-year
- commitment and gave us an opportunity to tackle big projects Now we need a special taxing district for
- BT that the county Could create and that would continue the narrative and so it and this is again coming
- from the former GM who as we know is outgoing but the vision was to transition to Monroe Transit and
- have a bigger
- service area and that would allow a different mechanism to include rural transit and IU that might be
- more attractive to them as subcranked contractors and get that writer should up ship up to really Massively
- increase the federal share which is the the big money that really would make the transformational impact
- So they are not expecting it to continue They don't use it for operations. So it will not impact their
- daily operations to have it go away and there is a bigger plan to
- Recoup that and much much much more if they could move to a different funding structure essentially
- Thank you. Maybe just one last question, which you may not know the answer to but if you do Do you know
- if they were able to like what percent of their fleet is electrified like what they were able to accomplish
- essentially? I believe it's almost entirely electric at this point. Okay. I don't know that I see mr.
- Askins is shaking his head. I don't know the answers that I can find out though Yeah, I can ask as well.
- Thank you. Appreciate it
- Council questions Councilmember Stossberg Second to you mentioned having had a discussion about outcome-based
- budgeting at the fiscal committee meeting and what I pulled up and what I recall was A list of seven
- priorities that the mayoral administration came forward with
- And five of those, it looked like, had specific things that were trackable in terms of outcomes. And
- that is what was in our packet. So can you clarify exactly, like, were any of those things actually
- tracked? I mean, here it's trackable priorities were assets, maintenance and enhancement, homelessness,
- homelessness mitigation, transportation, implementation of zero fatalities, and safe streets for all plans.
- And then housing economic development climate didn't seem to have any specific thing in it at the time,
- though I was also told this might be a draft. And then public safety had alternative response in as
- something trackable. So were any of those things, I mean, that's how it's labeled as trackable priorities
- in that packet from, I think it's June 12th.
- I have no doubt that some of the responsible departments are tracking those metrics. They are not being
- tracked at the central financial system level for the reasons we've already talked about. Okay. Would
- the Deputy Mayor perhaps like to speak to that in terms of the budget instructions or creation that
- you gave to cabinet
- So I think the short answer is we did ask people to indicate and to pull out, if they could, what the
- amounts were that they were spending on those priorities. There are some ways in which it's really easy.
- You can look at, for example, obviously police and fire. All of that is public safety. That's easy.
- But when you're looking at other departments where, let's use CFRD as an example, where the staff are
- very intermingled in what they do, it is harder to separate out staff time by person for what percentage
- you spend on this. And honestly, it's just a time problem of, as we're approaching the budget and putting
- the budget book together with a busy controller, trying to figure out how do we collect all of that.
- I guess an example would be the grants spreadsheet that we shared with you all in notes last year We
- were able to provide a more detailed list this year It was much harder to pull together because of everything
- that was else that was going on earlier in the spring with Accessibility and a new controller just didn't
- have enough time to do what we would have liked to do Okay, thank you Councilmember council president sorry
- Thank you. I was really fascinated by, you know, the wonders of ERP. Could you tell me all of the things
- that it will actually do? Well, we don't have a product chosen yet. I mean, there are certainly
- some options that we have that we talk about, but we do have to go through a procurement process. And
- obviously we'll talk about this with ITSC here in a second, but I mean, the question that I'm really
- interested in getting at is the, I mean, I guess if I would just ask it quite directly, it's whether
- or not the administration wants to do outcome-based budgeting, because the council's been very clear.
- We voted nine-zero that that's what we wanted, and so, and I'm trying to understand a little bit between
- what's the actual technical
- Difficulty I think you know yeah like we can't do crosswalks and find things out, but like will this
- system help us identify programs? Or who's owning them or what we want to achieve with them well again.
- I think this is where we have to kind of set up this Charter with a with the definition of what success
- is so if that's you know if that's something that you and the council considers essential to to success
- then that becomes
- a criterion that we use to move forward with. I think like I mentioned before, we didn't have any one
- technical obstacle before. It was just new me, a huge number of priorities that absolutely had to be
- done, two audits, staff transition, and just a really clunky system. And so there's just not enough
- time in the day.
- And then we feel like if we get a new technology, it's going to change our ability to approach to approach
- this sort of like holistically So I wish you had asked during my presentation this you could have asked
- this question of me and then I could have given you this answer So hogging Jeff's time. Sorry Apologies,
- but you know, I really want to stress we need counsel to be actively involved in a very detailed and
- probably tedious boring way for you in defining what this looks like
- We spent, staff spent hours and hours and hours last year developing program inventories, putting them
- into the system that we tried to use last year. I spent days and days and days organizing them. I received
- zero feedback from council about the level of intricacy. We need that from you. We need to know before
- we start, how detailed do you want it to be? Which programs do you want us to look at?
- So it's going to take more than we want this It's going to take you showing up to meetings with us over
- and over again and saying not like this like this What about that? It's going to be hands-on. Sure.
- Thank you Other questions from council councilmember rough Top priority or goal for the coming budget
- year for your office
- one of them is strengthening fiscal transparency. Is that all sort of the incentive or the motivation
- or the drive for that prioritization? Is that mainly sort of state-initiated ACFR auditing types of
- requirements or is there, does the administration see your office and you see sort of other strong incentives for
- Strengthening fiscal transparency. Well, yeah, I think that We put a lot of work into these reports
- and audits. I want them to be useful I think that's that's a big thing It's not just shouldn't be just
- checking a box and meeting the minimum requirements of the state I mean, of course that that's a minimum
- we do need to meet the minimum requirements of the state but it's it's a priority a because I think that
- Financial information is more useful when it's more timely. I want to be able to get and just and You
- can ask the your colleagues who are on the fiscal committee We have worked to get more more detailed
- financial reports to To committee members and I think it's I think it's been useful. I'll ask the committee
- members. I think those have been useful I think more and information in a more timely manner is a
- Useful to everybody it's useful to the public and it's useful to council members and other decision-makers
- And then also I think it needs to be made more user-friendly. I think I think we all know that state
- reports state audit audit documents are not written in a way that and and for that matter the budget
- book are not written in a way that really is very public friendly really, you know, I really think it's
- important to
- Part of transparency is also just explaining things and making it clear how the different pieces get
- to each other So yeah, it is sort of a passion of mine that is combined by combined with I think the
- need to just to be good stewards Thank You mr. McKim in in my last 30 seconds, so just sort of add on
- to that do you see Sort of the budgetary implications or the the demands or opportunity cost of
- Really making that a priority Would you say sort of it dovetails in any way with outcome-based budgeting
- approach or is it more of a Zero-sum opportunity cost type You know, it's I mean that that's a fair
- question and I think had we attempted to do a
- The full OBB this year. I think it would have been a zero sum because one of the things that's really
- important to remember is that OBB is not replacing one budget system with a better one. It is doing
- all the same things. We already have to do Which includes, you know passing the budget the way that
- we do with funds and departments and lines Transferring that information over to the state's gateway
- system and approving it in using the state prescribed format
- Plus some additional stuff. So I mean that's a that's a fair point and that's why to really make it
- work That's why we've got to get these efficiencies and reporting. We got to make this stuff easier
- for ourselves. Sorry Thank you. Thank you If there are no other questions We'll go to the public There's
- anyone in council chambers who would like to comment on the office of the controllers budget Seeing
- none anyone online
- Please state your name and you have three minutes Kevin Keough Bloomington resident retired CPA and
- practicing IT internal auditor with many years of experience in financial accounting internal controls
- and information systems auditing
- I attended last Friday's public safety local income tax rate committee meeting. Page 16 of the budget
- book put me on notice that this is a critical issue that I need to pay attention to. Since that meeting,
- I've been trying to understand what happened to the two public safety funds between 2017 to April 2nd,
- 2020, I believe 2025, for which the city is responsible. Let me try my best to make this simple. I think
- of these as two checkbooks.
- One is the Public Safety LIT Fund, money for public safety purposes, police and fire. The other is the
- PSAP Lit Fund, which is associated specifically with the Dispatch Center. These are different pots of
- money for different restricted purposes, but instead of being able to open the city's financial system
- and clearly see the activity and balance associated with each fund, the PSAP revenues and expenditures
- for the period around 2017 through 12-31-24,
- were maintained in a public safety lit fund. Somehow these funds were commingled. And here's what concerns
- me even more. The PSAP detail of activity was separately tracked on a side ledger. This is like a separate
- checking account register, completely outside the city's financial system. That makes following the
- money very dark and very difficult. This
- This concern is directly relevant to tonight's controller's presentation and the information technology
- budget to come up. Mayor Thompson said recently he should describe the city's 15 year old financial
- software as a bottleneck requiring extensive manual work.
- Replacing that software may be necessary, but a new system alone will not correct weaknesses in financial
- processes and controls. Automating a flawed process merely produces errors and more inefficiencies.
- A financial system replacement is not simply an IT purchase. It's a redesign of the city's financial
- operations. I think three controls are essential.
- First, conduct a comprehensive current state assessment. A qualified steering committee should identify
- and document off-system spreadsheets if they still exist, subsidiary ledgers, manual reconciliations,
- and other workarounds throughout the whole city government. Second, establish data integrity before
- migration.
- Fund balances and historical transactions such as the PSAP balance should be reconciled and independently
- validated before you enter it in a new system. Questionable data should not become a new system's opening
- data. Third, require rigorous user acceptance testing.
- Final approval should depend upon documented testing of the fund accounting and all the different basis
- of accounting to use segregation of duties audit trails reconciliations access controls and compliance
- requirements not met word not merely whether the software was installed successfully.
- Thanks to Jeff I thought he did a great presentation and I think where he's guided where he's going
- mr. Keough good place to go. I just wish I had Thank you Thank You mr. Keough for your comments are
- there is there anyone else online anyone else in chambers I
- We'll come back to council for final comments on the office of controller budget Councilmember Sasper
- Thank you First I just want to say that it I've really enjoyed working with controller McKim this year.
- I think that the efforts toward explaining things in ways that people understand are
- are successful. I think that the financial reporting that he's provided to the fiscal committee has
- been incredibly useful and incredibly easy to understand and grasp, and I really, really appreciate
- that. But I also wanted to address this outcome-based budgeting thing, partly because I first noticed,
- and I don't think that this is
- necessarily for Controller McKim as much as other pieces of the administration, because in one of the
- written questions from Councilmember Asari, it was referenced that a March meeting of the fiscal committee,
- there was a discussion about outcome-based budgeting and deferring it, and I looked back at that meeting,
- because I don't remember that discussion, and I don't have that anywhere in my notes, and I think that that's a
- mischaracterization perhaps of what happened at that meeting in terms of those discussions and I also
- Really kind of when I when I did then look back and go, okay when did we actually have a discussion
- about trackable priorities and that sort of thing and it was at that June
- 12th meeting when we were talking about this, and it did get presented as, instead of tracking everything,
- like this attempt was made last year to do that, it was like, okay, we're just gonna take out, we're
- gonna pull a few things out instead of all of the things. But I haven't seen those few things pulled
- out particularly well or comprehensively that I have seen. Some department had budgets that say like,
- oh, this particular 2027 goal, you know,
- has to do with maintenance and it spends this much, but I haven't seen anywhere where it totals that
- up anywhere, and so then it's left going, okay, I'm gonna have to total that up myself. I appreciate
- the administration's request and need for a dedicated task force, perhaps, to help work on the outcome-based
- budgeting, and I want us to all remember back to 2025 when we had a budget task force, and at the early
- part of this year, it was like,
- What did that task force do? Is it still needed this year? And the answer that I received and passed
- on to Council President Asari because he would be the one this year who would have had to make that
- happen was no.
- That that task force was was not particularly helpful last year and that it didn't need to continue
- this year So I I don't feel as though communication around outcome-based budgeting has been particularly
- smooth this year and I think that it's Just ended up disappointing all around in terms of how it's been
- laid out in the budget this year. Thank you Thank you further comment counselor Flaherty I
- I know it's from the fiscal committee. I don't recall any type of decision being communicated that outcome
- based budgeting was off the table for this year or kind of You know not relevant. We did talk about
- outcome based budgeting and I've said this in other meetings, but I Don't think that the financial system
- is the barrier I think it's a desire to have a consistent set of outcomes that are shared between the
- mayor's administration and the council Structurally, it is very difficult for the council to advance
- its priorities
- And I think that just favors a system that kind of is the status quo It is frustrating as a councilmember
- because it's very hard to Really hold ourselves accountable. I mean the absence the things that we do
- have are the planning documents and Legislation that we've adopted things like very high-level ambitious
- outcomes like zero deaths and serious injuries in our streets by 2039 things that are contained in our
- comprehensive plan and and some transportation plan safe streets for all action plan and
- There are some other plans that are relevant, but planning and transportation does tend to have a lot
- of them because they're state-mandated processes or just areas of priority. But if we're gonna actually
- do something like outcome-based budgeting, it starts with outcomes, and we have to have a process to
- define what that would look like to develop shared outcomes with, of course, a set of metrics that are
- sort of consistent in the way we are measuring and thinking about outcomes. None of that's a financial
- system, and so I just don't...
- I'm not convinced that that will make any real change at all, and I guess I'm curious, I'll ask some
- follow-up questions in writing, but just like, is there commitment to this concept or not, and what
- are the plans to advance, not the technology piece that might underpin this later, but the development
- of outcomes piece of it. So that's all, thank you. Thank you. Any other comments before we move on?
- Thank you, Controller McKim.
- We'll move on now to legal and risk management Margie rice welcome Hi Margie rice corporation council
- and I'm here to present the budget for both legal and risk The legal department just in general overview
- the legal department has ten full-time staff. We have eight full-time
- full-time attorneys, one full-time paralegal, and one full-time administrative staff. I'll talk about
- this in this slide and the next one as well. Our big budget change in legal is that we are transferring
- $272,000 from our 03 line, which is our services line, to the risk division.
- Mentioned in the past few years The fact that we've needed extra money because the annexation litigation
- has been going on that's wrapping up we that the County residents against annexation is almost over
- We just have an issue over how much in attorneys fees the city has to pay plaintiff's counsel And that
- is still pending the case of the waivers
- The waiver of annexation that case we are still waiting on the State Supreme Court to rule on our petition
- to transfer That if you remember correctly, we had an October 30th 2025 oral argument and the Supreme
- Court has yet to rule The other change other changes in this legal budget really are just the step increases
- and the 2.7. Cola and
- I know I'm going to try to answer some of the questions that the council asked I haven't provided written
- answers yet to the court to the council But I'm going to try to answer some of your questions in this
- presentation I know one of the questions was about our outside legal services. So as I'm mentioning
- litigation and The annexation litigation I can tell you that in 2025 we spent in our oh three category
- three hundred and ninety two thousand ninety two dollars and seventy five cents so far this year and
- In 26, we've only spent a hundred and twenty six thousand seven hundred and fifty eight dollars and
- eight cents in outside legal services The general overview of the risk division we have three full-time
- staff a risk manager a director of safety training and one administrative staff person We promoted our
- administrative staff person to director of safety training after we had somebody retire after more than
- I think 25 years so we
- We promoted Jasmine forte plunket to the director of safety and training and we've had an opening in
- our admin staff For a good number of months, but we've recently offered the Offered it to somebody and
- she's accepted. So we're just pending HR approval
- But we are asking to move $272,000 from legal to the risk division to look at and we haven't picked
- it out yet, but we're looking at buying some technology to some telemetrics to monitor vehicles of Our
- employees who are driving to check things like speeding how hard they stop if they roll through stop
- signs driver in attention that is not intended to be big brother ish, but it is intended to keep our
- employees safe and
- To reduce accidents again haven't purchased anything We've tested a couple of products that was last
- year We tested one of the products we liked was by Sam Sarah, which is a publicly traded company But
- again, there will be a lot more opportunity to have conversation about what we purchase if we purchase
- Something as we move forward
- Supply line is being reduced by 64% part of something we negotiated in our asked me agreement was to
- pay for to give Union employees a stipend for shoes and clothing and so because each union member will
- get six hundred and forty dollars per the CBA and that's new We typically paid that out of risk and
- so the controller moved money from our supply lined
- another line so that that asks me to another line outside our budget so that that could be paid and
- what's remaining in my budget will pay for non-union members shoes and Winter clothing so that line
- was eighty two thousand eight eighty three. It will be twenty five thousand three hundred in twenty
- seven This is just a general overview of our budget see total risk and legal is three million three
- hundred sixty four thousand and
- the bulk of that is personnel and then again the services you can In our mostly ro3 category Just some
- highlights of What legal does legal is not the most exciting department in terms of variety of what
- we do. We do the same thing every year We handle public records. We handle contracts. I'm going to go
- through some of these highlights right now as at the end of July 2026 we had received
- more than 500 public records requests Popularity is increasing because we use next request. I can tell
- you that I checked yesterday and we were at 588 public records that compares to in 24 we had 570 requests
- in 25 we had 580 requests so we're surpassing that right now in August the end of August and
- I am fully aware that not everybody is happy with the way we manage public records, but I'll tell you
- we are doing our best to increase our response time in 23 it took about 54 days to on average to get
- records to people in 24 that was reduced to about 36 days in 25 that's about nine point seven one and
- so far in 26 we're averaging about eight day turn turnaround time and
- We do a lot of contracts in the city of Bloomington Tell you in 2022. We did eight hundred and five
- contracts twenty three eight hundred and seventy four twenty four nine hundred and five and Year to
- date at the time I did the slider was six hundred and as of yesterday was about six hundred and sixty
- So yeah total for 25 was 1102 and I think we're gonna pass that up So every department we we do contracts
- for every department and I can tell you that
- We divide up our time somebody asked the question of how do attorneys spend their time and do we keep
- track hours or percentages? We don't track hours as frankly one of the benefits of being in a municipal
- law department as opposed to private practice You're not tracking your hours by every six minutes But
- I did ask my attorneys to kind of estimate how much time they're spending on things They spend about
- 80% of their time on their primary departments. That's giving advice. That's doing contracts
- answering their questions about various laws and and about You know, they all do specialty stuff like
- litigation a couple of attorneys don't don't do litigation but they other miscellaneous tax tasks take
- up about the other 20 percent of their time, but And we do as I mentioned litigation we do a lot of
- litigation right now We have about 16 open litigation cases that that ranges anywhere from ordinance
- violations to some federal
- Litigation like the turning point case which is pending in front of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
- right now We do that some of that in-house some of that with outside counsel because we buy insurance
- We also get the benefit of having insurance defense in some cases But our goals are always to protect
- the city's interests remember that the client for for
- Our department is the city of Bloomington. It's not any one constituent Within the city it is the city
- itself and that is a function of the professional rules of conduct So we're very careful to make sure
- when we're making decisions. We are doing what we think is in our ethical and professional Discretion
- what is in the best interest of the city? So the risk division they do a lot of work on
- Reviewing tort claims that come in you can't sue a city for an accident unless you file a tort claim
- first We manage workers compensation Secure the insurance coverage. We do trainings a lot of other things
- I can tell you that in year-to-date We've received 31 tort claims. Not all of those will result in litigation
- in 25 we received a total of 60 tort claims and
- Somebody asked I think I heard this week somebody asked about workers compensation accidents gear to
- date. We've had 66 incidents Across the city 42 of those have resulted in claims where we have paid
- You know, we have paid for medical care or something for somebody who was in it injured We have had
- spent about a hundred ninety two thousand dollars to date on workers compensation
- Priorities that goals really are just like everybody else said we want to try to improve Efficiency
- uniformity we do struggle with lack of technology to help us keep our data But we are trying we want
- to want to get technology to improve service and to reduce incidents and accidents we also want to provide
- consistent communication and training and
- Challenges are just you know, if there are a lot of federal changes with accessibility, that's gonna
- be a pro and a con We are working on our contract templates to make them accessible But it also makes
- challenges like we can't just turn on every public record request because not every PRR is accessible
- at this point We do have a higher volume of work and increased with no increased resources But we are
- hoping that with technology we can do a little bit better And that's it. Thank you
- Thank You mr. Rice We'll go to council now for questions Council President sorry, thank you so much.
- Thank you. So so very much attorney rice similar question to what asked the clerk on how would you estimate
- as as Corporation Council the sort of workload or a work utilization of City I'm gonna have a very similar
- answer miss. She and she said I think said nine nine
- 0.5 out of 10 I'd say we're right there too. We years ago I think the last time I was corporation council
- We were reduced by a one attorney and we reduced by an admin staff. I know that my staff would love
- to have more resources One of the things I've thought about is you know Could you reduce special legal
- services and use that to fund staff person? I don't know that it would equate because there's sometimes
- like annexation and
- Kind of a specialty thing bond work. You're always gonna have to pay bond counsel, but we're pretty
- we're pretty maxed out Again, it's not a 40 week, you know 40 hour week job. We know that people work
- over but nobody is Absolutely killing themselves working 60 hour work weeks, but we are definitely You
- know definitely busy but to that end then
- Thinking about records requests specifically, I mean, with the increase of records requests, does it
- make sense for those all to live in...
- and legal I Share some of the concerns that people have said is that legal thinks differently or lawyers
- think differently than somebody Maybe who has a library science degree or a technology degree I would
- be open to other ways of doing it One of the challenges we have is that no, you know, we're not increasing
- staff really anywhere across the city We do devote we have two attorneys who are sharing responsibility
- to work on public records requests and
- We have our paralegal working on it just because she's been here a very long time and has a
- lot of institutional knowledge knows to where where to look for things and We meet in legal weekly.
- I meet with that staff to go over we open up next request We see what's there we see how close we are
- to deadlines if we need more time Could you estimate how much time is being spent? Yeah, you know
- I know that's yeah, you know, I'll tell you I had an attorney last week who said do you mind if I you
- know Just take Friday to work on kind of getting some of these things taken care of so I'm saying I
- think that they spend Alex Pratt and Chris Wheeler are the two Attorneys that are doing it Alex that
- she estimates about 20% of her time. Okay, I think Chris said about the same. Okay, so that's that's
- that's like a I mean, that's a significant portion of time Yeah, and and we certainly you know, that's
- the the law is that you have to
- answer these in a reasonable period of time. And what's reasonable is based on what else you have on
- your plate at the time. We love to be able to meet people's expectations in terms of getting them the
- records when they need them. And if we can, we will do that. It's just sometimes you gotta communicate
- with different people. My biggest fear is that somebody asks for a record that they maybe already have
- and we in our search don't find it. And so I'm always
- Really? Emphasizing to our staff ask the staff person who's got the records, but then go check Google
- to see you know Because I don't want to withhold something that we should be giving to somebody Thank
- you have a number of questions Councilmember Stasberg then Piedmont Smith and Zulek Thank you, I just
- have Kind of follow up of what you were talking about with the workers comp
- claims and the workplace accidents so you guys handle through the risk department like like all of the
- accidents for Like any city work like including sanitation or anything like that because I know that
- we got the sanitation the new sanitation trucks to try to reduce those Pardon me. What was that? We
- got the new sanitation trucks a few years ago to reduce workplace accidents and so but you handle all
- of them Yeah, so then this year have there just been
- Year-to-date 66 claims is that what she said 66 incidents? So there's a there's an accident report that
- comes through if there's an accident Not every employee is injured to the point that they need treatment
- But we like to know what incidents are happening so that we can then train to the incidents, you know
- Like hey that was a near miss. Let's train that department. So that doesn't happen again we but we've
- had 43 cases where
- This year where there's been some treatment and again running a report and this is where To what every
- you know kind of a broken record what people have said is, you know We keep data in a lot of different
- places in a lot of different ways. And so Are we use Highland? One of the reasons we went with Highland
- recently was a couple years ago. They had a
- Pretty good technology to help us out, but I can tell you we we ran a report We have four hundred and
- ninety five thousand dollars starting each year in our workers comp budget. We are self-insured and
- then we have an excess coverage policy for excess coverage, but We've spent out of that 495 this year.
- We have we have spent a hundred and ninety two thousand seven ninety one and so That's not frankly
- A huge amount and we were doing pretty good. I think and and it's all it's not about them. I mean, it's
- really not about the money It's about the employees and how do we keep them safe and going home at night? and so we
- We do look at these accidents, and we do regularly follow up. Again, it's Gary Connor, our wrist manager,
- Jazz, our director of safety and training. We will have our admin. That's gonna be a huge help. And
- then Taylor Brown is assigned to the wrist division, and he regularly meets, again, weekly to try to
- look at patterns. I hate to interrupt you, but I only have 40 seconds left. Yeah, sorry. That's okay.
- I just wanna follow up real fast. So those other incidents where there's not been some kind of a treatment,
- they probably just like,
- Weren't might be like a scratch it so in terms of like those incidents like every little thing has to
- be Reported in terms of like it if we find out that there's something happened and didn't get reported
- We do ask about that and we're like, hey, we need to know that so we can help you. Okay? Okay, great
- That's kind of what I wanted to clarify because I think it's actually it feels pretty good that there
- have only been 66 incidents this year here to date is that like is that a good trend line over the past
- few years and
- Yeah, I think we're yeah, I can get the statistics. That's something I can follow up with and tell you
- what the you know, 25 26 25 Numbers were okay. Yeah, I'll follow up with okay. Thank you comes Mary
- Piedmont Smith Yes, um, I am a little bit concerned about this telemetric technology that you're seeking
- to purchase to track city-owned vehicles and the possible
- surveillance aspects of such technology. Can you tell me more about your own cost benefit analysis of
- the benefit of reducing risk versus the cost of perhaps tracking people who are just using a Citibank
- like making a stop on their way to city business? Yeah, we wouldn't the purpose of that technology would
- not because we
- Allow employees to make you know de minimis incidental stops when there so that wouldn't be even a violation
- of policy But we've when we tested some of the technology we could see You know that there were you
- know, there's maybe a driver early in the morning nodding off or somebody regularly rolling through
- a stop sign that can be a safety issue for that employee as well as a
- you know, one of your constituents. A speed is a factor. Often we suspect that speed may be a factor
- in an accident, but the employee report's not speeding. A few years ago, you know, we had a large piece
- of equipment being hauled and it went into a roundabout. We thought speed was a factor. We couldn't
- tell. This technology would allow us to do that. So again, it's not intended to spy on employees, but
- it is intended to be used for training purposes so we can keep employees safe.
- But I will say I I know that council is concerned about that. And so we haven't purchased anything We
- will want to make sure that we go through a process even talking to the union about what we're purchasing
- Looking at what people's questions and concerns are in addressing those before anything is purchased
- Yeah, I guess my concern would Increase if this were data that's somehow stored on a cloud and accessed
- by other communities or insurance agencies or any other
- Actors. Yeah. Yeah, that's one thing we'll be looking at is where is the data stored? Okay I also want
- to ask does the increase I Mean, it seems like there's been a big increase in public record requests
- Does this tell you anything about the transparency of our local government like that? So many people
- are asking for these things, you know, I'm in a way I'm encouraged by it because people
- Know that we have a system that's easy to use and so I think that's one of the things that's happening
- is next request is fairly easy for people to use and So to me, it's a good sign that people are you
- know, they know we're responsive. We're getting them the records They're asking for them. So I think
- it's definitely an increase in transparency. I don't I Don't think that it's that it's You know a bad
- sign. I think it's a good time Thank you That's my resilient
- And thank you for your presentation. Could you let could you estimate about how much money we've spent
- on the annexation lawsuit? Yeah, you know I I can get you the full figure from beginning to end But
- I don't have that with me now I can tell you that in 25 and 26 combined we spent four hundred and seven thousand
- $840 and 88 cents now there were you know, this started many years ago and so we can get those numbers
- for you I just don't have them with me but I can tell you in those two years It was a little over 400,000.
- Thank you. And could you list all of the defendants included on that lawsuit? Not maybe not off the
- top of my head But council is one of them Yes. Yes Could you elaborate as to why we've only had the
- executive session related to this matter I Haven't felt like executive sessions have been necessary.
- But certainly if you if we want one we can schedule one Are you familiar with rule 1.4 of the American
- Bar Association? So keep clients and informed. Yes, we again
- Yeah, and and so I when I think about the city as a whole I do think the city includes, you know, the
- executive branch and the legislative branch Council has obviously their own attorneys and We've you
- know at any point that we get questions from council attorneys about litigation or annexation we certainly
- talk to them and try to answer their questions so if this is a request for an executive session and
- On the annexation litigation we can certainly get that scheduled This is a request to be continuously
- informed on all matters related to the annexation lawsuit and every time there is a decision made in
- court Okay, sounds great. And I think we look forward and we've had a great relationship with Larry
- and with former attorneys and I'm looking forward to working with Whoever it is that you hire going.
- Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah Further questions from counsel
- Councilmember Ruff Council Resulix Inquiry about the annexation litigation. So you're the first slide
- says that It's nearly over and annexation litigation is nearly over Is it nearly over because It's run
- its course there's no other places that
- to go to make a decision to take it another step or is it over because the administration has decided
- enough is enough I I think it's not the latter so the we did not prevail in the trial with the county
- residents against annexation so that ran its course the waiver
- Issue is still pending before the Supreme Court. We're waiting to see if they will take the case up
- It was a petition to transfer so we're waiting on that ruling and depending upon how that goes It may
- actually if if we were to receive a favorable ruling, you know areas So 1a and 1b are done because that
- was the the trial that we lost Aries 1c 2 and 3 could be annexed if we get a favorable ruling and
- In that case and so we would continue in that regard and then Aries four and five would depend upon
- if there were Remonstrances and if there were we'd have to decide at that point if we were going to
- go forward with a trial so the first case CREA is over just by a function of ran its course and we did
- not prevail and We're waiting on the second one. So we are continuing to pursue it But we just are now
- waiting for the court So so we're quick to follow up so
- Depending on some of the outcomes There if there was pushback then from those affected who were opposed
- even though the city got favorable ruling they might We might be drugged further into so it You can't
- really say and against annexation litigation is nearly over It's I think the the
- bulk of the you know, the CRA case is over so that's that's more than half of it is over and and You
- know again by function of law if those waivers are deemed to be you know waivers of remonstrance We're
- not invalidated by the state law and they say hey, those are still good waivers three of the areas would
- would have we would have had the numbers to annex them and so that would happen as a matter of law those
- would be annexed and so then the only decision would be those areas four and five and
- And and whether and again, you'd have to wait to see if there were monstrous happen And then if there
- were whether it was worth the while to go for or with a trial So I to me when I look at the percentages,
- I think a lot of it's behind us You know and it's it's it's out of our hands if the waivers are are
- are You know if the state law was okay, and they could have validated waivers then we're not going to
- be able to annex one one C two and three and
- Okay. Thank you. Yeah other questions I had one a constituent was you know is concerned about the public
- records requests and Why? Maybe you've addressed this but could you just restate why why wouldn't if
- you're going to provide public records requests Why wouldn't you issue it to the public? Yeah and
- Not only for transparency, but just to prevent Public records requests for the same item, right? I do
- think that's makes logical sense and this is gonna this is a nice segue to when you talk to the IT but
- about accessibility so if we were to turn on all of those public records requests and make them public
- facing that our next request they would have to be accessible per the federal law and we don't have
- the resources to
- At this point in time to make all of that archived material accessible. They aren't they haven't been
- fully accessible So we would need to make that if that is something that the council Felt was important
- and wanted to do you could certainly put your you know money towards that and then dedicate resources
- for us to get that done We don't currently have the time or the
- Human resources to do that not that we're opposed to it. It'd be fantastic Because we could then say
- hey look there if somebody could look through it and peruse it and see what's available It's just that
- turning them on means we're gonna need to make them accessible and there are a lot of them that are
- not maybe Okay, so maybe this is a naive question, but you you've got the material and you can't put
- you need human hours to evaluate and
- Determined to accessible documents and you know a lot of them were scanned as PDFs or whatever and they'll
- have to be Turned into accessible documents and and again, it's not an impossible thing to do. It's
- just a matter of time and resources Okay. Well, maybe this question for mr. Dietz director Dietz when
- it comes time for IT Okay, seeing no other questions then well, mr. Chair, yeah did have another quick
- question if that's okay I haven't asked
- Lot of questions during the whole budget process. I was wondering if I might ask another quick one,
- please make it quick. Yeah Do we anticipate a much? expense legal cost in the coming budget year for
- eminent domain type activities Not that I'm aware of So we don't have projects. Are you thinking maybe
- things like CB use project on the waterway or the
- Creek Restoration or I guess that's that's still in early in stages right the studies. Yeah, I'm talking
- maybe about some of the transportation type projects I I guess I I'm not aware of a lot of we the most
- recent thing that we've done in terms of right-of-way acquisition was High Street and we did a lot of
- acquisition now not a lot of eminent
- Domain in the sense that we had to go to trial and fight with people over that But we did acquisition
- so there may be right-of-way Acquisition and I may be being too technical you may be talking about just
- right-of-way Acquisition not in a domain when I think of them in a domain I think somebody's never gonna
- sell me their property and we're gonna have to push this to a trial and That rarely happens. Yeah, I
- was actually
- Talking about both. Yeah, you're right. There's I understand. Yeah, we have a You get the different
- chat. All right. Thank you. Yeah, okay Seeing no other questions. We will go now to the public anyone
- in chambers Mr. Allen anyone online no Okay Come back to counsel for comment on legal and risk management
- Seeing none Councilman Smith Yeah, I just want to follow up on a question I asked about the increase
- in the number of public records requests I don't know the reason but I think it's worth reflecting on
- what Depending on if there's any trends in what is being asked for It would be wise to
- Look at ways we can preempt these public record requests by being more transparent in the first place
- But I don't know if Director if corporation council rice actually heard that since she was but that's
- okay It was not a question. It was just saying I think that it would be worthwhile to look at
- Ways of preempting public records requests since there seems to be an influx and a greater number of
- them Maybe there's a way to preempt them by being more transparent about things that they're asking
- about in the first place. That's all thank you I agree and I think that it seems to be a priority among
- some constituents that and some commonality that public records requests of a certain
- Topic or something seems to be shared in terms of interest. So we should try to Aim to make it accessible
- to public Okay, thank you for your presentation and We will now move on to our last item. No, I'm sorry.
- We have two more human resources department director paycheck welcome Yes, IT is very very last
- Last but not least Good evening sharp paycheck HR director sharing our 2027 budget proposal. Thank you
- for this opportunity HR drives the mayor's organizational priorities and partners with departments to
- meet workforce needs through talent management compensation and benefits and employee relations While
- we don't directly deliver on every city goal
- We do support the staff who do helping foster a workplace environment where everyone feels welcomed
- and valued The police department is a good example of HR in action We're supporting marketing campaigns
- and hiring events to help them achieve their staffing goals This budget season department heads express
- excitement about full or nearly full staffing better applicants that are of quantity and also quality and
- the impact of newly negotiated union contracts Perhaps these trends reflect HR outcomes and as we have
- more mature advanced technology We can better assess HR contributions and a return on investment HR
- has a full staff of 10 plus two new interns overall HR's budget increased 4% for next year and
- Personnel services increase 8% mainly from Cola and tenure and recently reclassifying a position to
- talent acquisition specialist supplies increased 54% but that's a relatively small budget the percentage
- may look more significant than it really is and
- The increase is about $8,000, but 4,000 of that is for technology, like laptops. And the rest supports
- increased staff and also enhanced employee recognition programming. Other services decreased 7%, reflecting
- lower spending in some of our operating areas, and also we reduced reliance on some of our outsourced services.
- short the 2027 budget stays lean on operations while investing in people technology and Recognition
- and that will tee us up for our priorities for next year Before I share 2027 priorities I'd like to
- highlight our progress this year in 2026 we advanced high-performing government through one HR and
- That is our approach to a more consistent HR experience citywide Every department and every employee
- has different needs, but they all rely on HR one HR Supports the city by standardizing policies Optimizing
- people and technology and building a base for continuous improvement Next I'll share some examples of
- HR one HR and practice so that council can understand we are
- with intention in human resources Employee relations and operations continue strengthening consistency
- across the city They updated the employee handbook launched the supervisor brief continue lead cohorts
- trainings for managers and they coordinated the pay action committee with a
- HR and ITS office of the controller and Department HR partners one HR Department described that effort
- related to time track and payroll as They said wow the changes exceeded our expectations Talent and
- engagement improve recruitment speed and reach while continuing to strengthen onboarding and employee
- engagement events
- Coffee with the mayor received positive feedback along with some suggestions on how we can make the
- event even more enjoyable. One attendee at the wellness fair shared how much they appreciated having
- all of the vendors and answers in one place, no website portals or long phone calls needed, and asked
- us to keep that event going. The red carpet employee appreciation lunch is coming up on October the 6th.
- We want that to be our greatest employee event yet and we invite council to join us Total rewards is
- now fully staffed they focused on both compensation and benefits Being fully staffed this team has been
- able to strengthen audits data integrity benefits administration and system functionality and
- A recent win, they partnered with ITS to separate medical and dental deductions so employees can elect
- them independently in 2027. In response to Council Member Asari's questions, I also reviewed several
- HR performance measures. Time to fill has dropped to 72 days compared to 104 days average for some of
- our peer organizations.
- Turnover is currently six point three eight percent year-to-date and that is down from fourteen percent
- in 2023 Those are encouraging and indicators But I want to be careful. I don't want to overstate what
- that data tells us until the end of the year Plus as you've heard our technology our technology still
- limits some HR reporting Next year HR will build on
- The one HR foundation focusing on support standardization and technology Our first priority strengthen
- workforce well-being and engagement Focuses on support for managers leadership development and the employee
- experience which could be assessed through turnover absence benefit utilization and event participation
- our second priority
- advance one HR policies and procedures and practices brings more standardization across departments
- which could be assessed through progressive discipline grievances and policy documentation completion
- our third priority optimize and standardize optimize and modernize HR systems advances technology to
- reduce manual work and strengthens data that could be assessed through productivity era and accuracy rates and
- Want to reiterate some data is still hard to assess and report today So I don't want to over promise
- and under deliver, but we hope that a new HR is will help close that gap In 2027 HR's priorities support
- broader city goals positioning the city as a high-performing employer of choice through a shared commitment
- to organizational excellence for example
- If engineering is hiring a project manager for capital infrastructure work, HR clearly is not providing
- technical expertise for construction activities to guide regulatory compliance. We don't even know what
- that means. But my point is that we don't have to be an expert in all things. We can just stay in our
- lane, and we can do that well. Our role is to help attract
- hire, and retain the right person, offer competitive compensation and benefits, and provide the policies
- and support that employee and their manager need to succeed. The same relationships exist across the
- city, rather employees are working on transportation, asset maintenance, homelessness, housing, economic
- development, climate, or public safety. This is how OneHR connects shared priorities
- We strengthen the workforce behind the work. Next year, we'll keep showing up for employees wherever
- they are at the city, turning priorities into meaningful connections and sustainable progress. To close,
- I'd like to recognize everyone who helped lay the One HR Foundation in 2026, and those who will partner
- with us to ensure the right people are in the right roles at the right time.
- I want to thank the HR team. They are a group of skilled, experienced, and dedicated individuals who
- make this work possible. I also want to thank the administration and department heads for their support.
- Thank you to all city employees for your respect and patience as we build trust through fair, consistent
- practices. And finally, thank you to the council for your past support and your future consideration.
- And I welcome any questions. Thank you, Director Paycheck.
- Are there questions? Yes, here's one Council president sorry First for your wonderful leadership and
- just for all the patience and time that you always give us and for this is now I know seventh time that
- you had to talk to us in a couple of weeks So thank you and I realize as I'm asking this question This
- might actually more be a question for the controller, but I'm interested in in the methods by which we do
- the COLA increases, and so do those go to each department sort of in a bulk fund? Do we sort of attach
- those to positions themselves and those increase? And what type of flexibility do we have? So specifically
- I'm looking at what it would look like in the city, especially because we have some vacancies and there's
- some seasonal workers and things like that. What it would look like to, for example, reduce it from
- 2.7 to 2.5, but then they still have the same sort of bulk money they can distribute amongst people
- who already work there.
- That's a possibility or if it has to be tied to specific positions. I would definitely punt that question
- to controller Well, I mean I'm not sure I can I can answer all of it first of all where the number came
- from the 2.7% we use the December December urban CPI
- I'm asking is just about what flexibility do we have with because because council gets a chance to make
- amendments to the budget efforts efforts Proposed and should we want to reduce that we can't increase
- it But should we want to reduce that what flexibility do departments have if that were to be decreased?
- Our practice as far as I know I'm gonna have to defer to people who have been here a lot longer than
- I have is to apply that to every position and
- Including including vacant positions, right? So we don't have a Okay, and we and do we have any flexibility
- in in that regard I Mean the short answer is yes, but that would be a pretty major Change that would
- have to be kind of rolled out thoughtfully to make sure I think that if you're talking about like giving
- certain people a
- Full amount and other people a lower amount. I mean, that's certainly something to be done But it would
- need to be done in a very thoughtful way, of course in a way to not create inequities Right. Okay.
- Thank you. Thank you councilmember Stusburg If you could you know, one of the things I've been asking
- about often is the other services and charges for things and
- I was noting your other services and charges, which is budgeted a little over 300,000 for this year
- and a little under for 2027. And very little of it has been expended as of quarter two. So I was just
- kind of wondering what that line is used for.
- So other services include like some of our Consulting budgets that are reserved. We also have it for
- Training so for our staff for some of the systems that we have now like NeoGov and Tyler and it also
- includes other things in that other services category like our telephone a postage travel printing and
- advertising for I specifically mean the
- Line and other services and charges that's labeled other services and charges. So it's like the other
- within the other What is the dollar amount again it's specifically for 2027 it's 292 540 one moment
- It's line 53 53 990 That one is for
- Give me one moment, I'm sorry. That's okay. That is the one that is, I actually believe other services
- and charges is reduced because we were able to bring some of our services in-house.
- An example of what that could have included, for example, at one point we had a Crow contract for like
- $300,000. That could have been a bulk of it. And so we haven't used that yet because we haven't had
- a need for a consultant like Crow. But we have used other consultants such as Robert Half to come in
- to do some consulting for our payroll
- Pay-action efforts, so I believe and I can double-check but I believe that specific Budget line that
- you are talking about is related to our consulting dollars Okay, and I guess the larger question which
- I don't know if you can answer in 15 seconds or maybe a controlling question controller question why
- aren't those consulting charges under consultants and
- Further in 53 170 and instead there and other services and charges And I can follow up with that Since
- I'm out of time, I'll follow up with that in the written stuff. I'm just kind of curious and the other
- services I'm sorry. I have Assistant directory Hillary Kanye here. We're trying to answer your question.
- We may have to follow up with you one of those account lines also includes the money for
- education reimbursement So that could be a part of those dollars as well Okay, I'll follow that up with
- the written questions. Honestly, probably not tomorrow Probably be Friday before I managed to get back.
- It's okay. Thank you. And I'm sorry. I thought it was fully prepared I have everything printed here
- is like I'm gonna be able to answer all these questions this year. So It's all good. Thank you a for
- effort, right?
- Yes, thank you for the presentation In your memo you talk about that the goal for 2027 is to develop
- a sustainable HR model Is that does that refer to the one HR is that yes? Yes and so what that really
- refers to is and I realize prior to me HR did a lot of great work but when I came into the door I
- I don't feel like I was handed a playbook, like an actual documented system of how things are
- done consistently within human resources. And so, this year, we have been spending a lot of time looking
- closely at all of the services that we provide,
- All of the steps that are involved who the key players are so that we can assess we actually did like
- an internal assessment where we graded ourselves And then we look to see where some of the best practices
- are to see how we can most closely align
- with some of the best practices in human resources. One HR is looking at how we do things to try to
- make things as consistent as possible across the city. It shouldn't matter if you're onboarded in sanitation
- or if you come through utilities or if you are in the animal shelter. We should have very similar policies,
- procedures, practices.
- for everybody to have a similar HR experience. And I got some coaching from Director Dietz that if you
- want to best prepare yourself for a new system in 2027, the best thing that you can do is make sure
- that all of your policies and practices, your procedures are as concise, as accurate, and streamlined
- as you can possibly get them. And then, that will help
- puts you in a better position for when you implement a new system. Very precise. Thank you. Other questions
- for Human Resources Department budget? Okay, seeing none, then we will go to the public. The public
- would like to comment. Anyone online?
- Nobody online. Okay back to council for final comment Okay, seeing none, thank you director paycheck
- very very appreciate Okay, our last item is information and technology services department ITS Director
- Dietz You can end our party tonight
- Yes on a high note good evening council I Do I do appreciate the opportunity to be The last presenter
- on the last night of the budget hearings when we're all at the peak of our faculties I hope that pays
- off for all of us I
- Thank You councilmember Rallo, I'm Rick Dietz director of the city's information and technology services
- department Also known as ITS and I appreciate the opportunity here to talk with you and present our
- 2027 budget proposal for your consideration And ITS our mission is to provide the IT services tools to
- Training and resources necessary to maintain mission-critical city systems empower city staff to excel
- in their work to expand digital opportunity in our community and electronically engage our residents
- in their own government ITS provides
- broad range of services across seven activity areas administration innovation process Improvement and
- data services enterprise applications management geographic information systems IT infrastructure technology
- support and training and Broadband and digital opportunity initiatives other cross-border
- cutting activity areas for ITS include our work with transparency, open government with digital
- accessibility, cyber security, and IT procurement. Our work in ITS is as much about people as it is
- about technology. We have a great team of creative technologists.
- with 21 full-time and one permanent part-time staff member and ITS and I'd like to take this opportunity
- to acknowledge and commend the ITS team for their continuing hard work and excellent supporting our
- public and staff customers So what's happening in the ITS budget for 2027? Looks like it's starting
- to rain Or it sounds like it's starting to rain
- The overall budget change from 2026 is seven hundred nineteen thousand eight hundred ninety three dollars.
- This is largely due to investment in the ERP enterprise resource Procure I'm sorry enterprise research
- management, but primarily the financial
- system component of that, but also those expenses are from newly budgeted accessibility and cybersecurity
- tools, as well as general inflation that we've experienced in recurring costs.
- Other elements of the budget you should be aware of the telecommunications non-reverting fund which
- drives its revenue from cable franchise fees continues to decline so we need to shift shift
- our Appropriations and expenses away from that and then we have a number of budgets I would say you
- know transfers across the
- Funds from general to digital opportunity from telecom to 80 lit and the full funding of the
- fiber connectivity fund all of which are essentially budget neutral transfers between funds But before
- we dig too deeply into our 2027 budget Let's look at the 2020 at 2026 and the work we've been doing
- over the last years Here's some highlights
- It's been a busy year for us thus far Our tech support team has updated the council chambers monitor
- replaced copier unit citywide moved dozens of staff to and from
- West showers from City Hall as well as replace dozens of computer workstations our GIS team in addition
- to winning this year's IGIC excellence and GIS award work diligently to map accessibility standards
- and create new maps our infrastructure team completed an enterprise
- a voiceover IP phone system, deployment, deployed critical infrastructure to the IU data center, and
- updated our network capabilities and facilities, including some areas of west showers. Our enterprise
- apps team has deployed dozens of online business licenses, permits, plans, code cases, and benefits
- applications, as well as updated our onboard and time track and other critical tools.
- And our team also deployed across the board accessibility training tools, scanning, new business processes,
- improving accessibility and efficiency across the organization. And this work continues to this day.
- The next slide, I'll show our main areas of activity in 2027. Those include cybersecurity, accessibility,
- Standing up presence at the IU data center the enterprise ERP system which includes Financial and HR
- components as well as broadband and digital inclusion and cyber security
- This is a consistent and constant focus for us in ITS. In the 2027 budget, we're expanding tool usage
- and invest in several new systems and support services that have been recommended and partially subsidized
- by the state of Indiana Office of Technology. And accessibility.
- Over the past few years we've coordinated City and city departments have engaged in significant process
- changes and tool adoptions to improve digital accessibility At the city you heard that mentioned by
- a number of my colleagues earlier this evening this work continues and this budget reflects the incorporation
- of new accessibility systems and support into our annual budget and
- on Data center work in 2026. We deployed Networking and storage hardware to the IU data center, which
- not now serves as our primary data center for city IT operations I want to congratulate our infrastructure
- team for making this long-term vision a reality in 2027 will consolidate additional data center operations at the
- At I use data center and will begin to fully lever redundant ISP and fiber route connections
- HR and financial systems were planning major upgrades and investments in 2027 these updates will increase
- the capacity of these foundational operation operating systems and increase the efficient efficiency
- of human resources and final financial operations
- Broadband and digital opportunity we can continue to support and coordinate city broadband activities
- Including the citywide Deployment of fiber with meridian and M Street fiber will continue to support
- digital inclusion activities through through
- community engagement and the award of grants to local organizations to help bridge the digital divide.
- But beyond these areas of focus, we do see a number of challenges and opportunities in the coming year.
- Of course, budget constraints, as Comptroller McKim has mentioned, we're working in an environment of
- funding uncertainty with state taxations, plus as I mentioned earlier,
- specifically for ITS, the continuing decline in telecommunications non-reverting fund revenue. We have
- high demand for training, support, and services on an enterprise-wide basis that we continue to work
- to meet, but we know that that demand is high and increasing. We also have demand for new tools across
- the organization.
- in areas of cyber security accessibility, but also just in general operating areas of our various sister
- city departments. As mentioned, we do have a number of transfers that I do want to highlight. We've
- moved digital opportunity grants to the fiber connectivity fund. We've moved computer capital replacement
- away from the declining telecom.
- funds into Edie Edie lit and then we also as controller McKim mentioned fully fund the fiber connectivity
- fund which will end our funding obligation Under our agreement with with meridian In conclusion, thank
- you for consideration of the
- 2027 ITS budget look forward to helping staff meet their goals and potential with technology tools and
- support in 2027 and we appreciate the opportunity to serve our sister city departments as well as the
- Bloomington community and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have Thank you.
- Thank you director Dietz. We'll go to questions from council Councilmember Piedmont Smith
- Yes, does it have an inventory of AI systems used by city employees? We have some visibility into Traffic,
- you know on our network. It's not actively managed in an invasive way and that it's not sitting
- on individuals Computers, but we can see that some some traffic is going out. Also we have
- tools that we know are are being used and at least informally support in addition, we have a process
- ongoing right now to you know flesh out a You know policy regime around, you know AI use in the city
- that we're currently reviewing with the with the legal department and will expand that circle to HR
- and other other departments for feedback and
- Okay, that's good to know but Do you have an actual like list of the systems or programs that use AI
- that are used here in the city? Yes, and no there's a number of AI specific tools that we know about
- I think one of the challenges and anybody in the IE or anybody in the IT field can attest to that and
- to this, that systems that were not AI tools now are, and an update that would seem to be innocuous
- on an operating system or on a web application, or even an update that you might not be aware of may
- incorporate.
- AI tools into it. So, you know, we think it's important to have that AI policy guidance that we're working
- on Thank you
- I'm just looking at the, because there's the mention within the budget about a general increase because
- of the technology that we want to use for accounts, but it's unclear to me where exactly that is in
- the budget. If we wanted to cut that out of the budget, what would be being cut?
- Funding for the financial upgrade for instance. So that that is currently in you know what we generally
- describe as the Capital budget for ITS, but that is in the ED lit. Oh, it's it's from an ED lit. We're
- okay Yeah, yeah, that's where that and then you and you estimate it to be six hundred thousand dollars
- That is our
- initial budgetary estimate, but that is in tandem with the investment in HR is which is Okay, so that's
- 600 figures referring to all of the different IT systems that people have talked about legal system
- HR system and the no that is referring to the financial the core financial management payroll all of
- the components you know accounts payable
- Accounts receivable all of that is in the six hundred thousand Okay component is previously budgeted, okay
- I think it was at 300,000. Okay, fantastic. If you could tell me later just as a follow-up. Yeah, I'm
- happy to break it all down. Yeah, I was just going to say as a follow-up and to distinguish between
- the bits that are supposedly being spent on outcome-based implementation and the things that are sort
- of other technologies that are being adopted. Right, this would be separate from that in a sense, but
- as has been discussed, it's an underlying platform
- Upgrade that will certainly help with that. Sure fantastic and I'll have some follow-up questions on
- that but the the other question I was gonna ask was Related to a procurement sort of building off of
- and purchasing building off councilman Piedmont Smith's question Could you explain just a little bit
- the the like where ITS plays a role? When the city is purchasing any type of technology if at all it Yes
- You know our there's a number of different roles. It depends on The you know the function of the system
- if it is a overall enterprise touching You know pervasive system then you know, we are largely leading,
- you know that process You know with with in partnership with other departments if it is department specific software
- I'm just gonna throw something out like the tools that you know park parks uses To you know to manage,
- you know its operations then you know, we will be a partner and you know facilitate that and ensure
- that it's meeting our You know our IT standards But this the selection the determination will you know
- largely be? That departments not not
- Clarifies it perfectly. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you Thank you so much I just have a couple follow-ups
- about that non reverting telecom fund And so I don't know if this is more for you or the controller
- or kind of a tag team Is that a fund that's unique to Bloomington or is that a fund that other municipalities
- have to? I
- Because I'm I guess I'm looking at the origin of the fund and it has to do with cable franchise fee
- revenues And so it's no surprise that declining but there's yes, there's a convoluted story, you know
- to that we used to I'll try to be quick. We used to write our own franchise agreements with cable providers
- Municipalities used to have that power the state of Indiana at the request of you know a largely AT&T
- Stripped that authority from local governments. It's now state has franchise authority, but in that
- transition they retained I believe a five percent, you know cap on Revenue that would come to local
- governments because of the of the franchise That was the called the franchise fee which was negotiated
- and we still retain that but as you rightly suggest
- That five percent is not what it used to be and has declined significantly over the years so it's no
- longer a source of fund that we can rely on at the at the level that we have in right so I guess since
- that is not say I mean so that's not a unique problem to Bloomington per se yes, so I guess I'm just
- wondering if there have been conversations anywhere about recouping those revenues through other
- Like fee is related to say streaming services for example because of course, you know we cut ties with
- cable and then people just have streaming services instead and You know in terms of like a household
- budget that feels sort of equivalent But in terms of what we're talking about right now in terms of
- government funds, it's not so has there been discussion about about that at the state level or a lot
- of discussion about that and a lot of local governments would you know would like that but the federal
- government does not allow a
- I think generally speaking local governments to tax Or create a fee structure for streaming streaming
- video And does that apply to state to does the federal government also not allow I have to look at what
- the current FCC? Guidelines are but that that very thing has been a topic of discussion as the kind of decent
- Stripping of local governments of that authority has moved across across the United States but To my
- understanding there's no source of revenue that we are able to tap from Streaming you know streaming
- internet-based streaming video services. Okay, great. Thank you. That's just very interesting Further questions
- We will go to the public then for comments on information technology services department budget for
- 2027 Any takers Okay We're back to council for final comment on our last budget item
- I'll make a very quick final comment and thank anybody who has hung with us this long through four budget
- meetings Thank IT for wrapping us up here. I thank them generally as a department Cybersecurity is incredibly
- important and I appreciate that that is a priority that you guys have had this year and will continue
- into next year there's
- all kinds of pieces of cybersecurity and all sorts of really really important Stuff that the government
- needs to protect in terms of I mean There's a lot of information out there and I'm glad that that we
- have some folks paying attention to how to protect it securely. Thanks Other comments on the ITS budget
- Okay saying none thank you so much for your presentation good work Without objection I'd like to provide
- the council with an opportunity for for comments on the budget overall No objection anyone anyone like
- to take a moment I Guess I did this for selfish reasons, so I'm gonna say something I
- Yeah, well here's very briefly What what what strikes me is The tremendous numbers of needs we have
- in in capital investment coming soon and Those proposed things like utility service center police department
- building construction public works facility parks and recreation capital needs What I hope to be a tap
- road fire station
- These things are adding up to big big money like over a hundred million dollars so How will they be
- paid for? Obviously we're going to be taking bonds at a time when things are very volatile in our economy
- And we're going to have to think about because of the state action for limiting revenue from property
- taxes I think we're gonna have to be looking obviously at income taxes and
- We're gonna be looking at We're also looking at increase in water and sewer rates. We're looking at
- increases in sanitation fees Some of these reports are just necessary to keep up with costs inflation
- and so forth, but It's it you know it It gives me great pause because I think of all these needs are
- important but some are more important than others and to me I need to think about them relative to their
- importance and
- And I'm not going to give away what I think is most important right now But just to say that I think
- that you know, it really requires some kind of judicious ranking of them The last thing I want to say
- last three things I want to say is that I think it's a modest request just to keep Jack Hopkins Essentially
- increasing relative to and on pace with inflation I
- We found out during this budget hearing that deer are real concern in the city obviously they've been
- but we have a count of 90 deer per square mile and I looked at the report this evening it was sent to
- me by the DNR and it's in some areas there over 100 deer per square mile, which is an extreme it's a
- critical level of of deer numbers we've had a very wet season and
- This means there's lots of forage, but that's not necessarily going to be the case And so we're getting
- a lot of deer population increase And that is concerned for people with obviously safety gardening food
- food production and and public health So that's a concern that's going to be required I think some resources
- and the first thing to do is I think continue tracking their numbers and
- And then the last thing was there was some discussion about a food policy coordinator, which I think
- is a very prudent thing to think about going forward because food's important for people, and
- it's particularly important for people in hard times to understand how they can access food, grow food,
- and have a resilient food system at a time when we might experience things like
- Supply disruptions and so forth so Communities have taken that as a priority and I think that we should
- we should we should learn from their experience So that's what I have to say is any anyone want to end
- with anything? Okay, and Controller McKim requested that we have that he be given a few moments because
- we have our budget legislation introduction on September 23rd, I understand and
- Do you want to tell us? Essentially the process from here on. Yeah. Thank you very much. It'll just
- take a moment I think as you know everything that we've already been doing is Internal pre-work to the
- formal budget submission the actual budget submission happens through the state's gateway system And
- our intention is to advertise the budget via gateway around September 9th or 10th The drop dead date
- is the 13th
- which is a Sunday. Once the budget has been advertised, it can still be lowered but not increased. And
- so if there's any council interest in increasing the budget anywhere, those discussions need to start
- pretty much now. And I know we've heard one example from Councilmember Rallo on that. Then after the
- advertisement, the public hearing for the budget is scheduled for Wednesday, September 23rd at 630.
- And the final budget adoption hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, October 7th.
- Also at 630 and so that's really bad. That's the budget process here in a nutshell So thank you for
- giving me a moment to just let her make sure we're on the same page Terrific. Thank you a question I
- do have a question in terms of it can only be cut and not increased Could it be cut in one place and
- increased in another for a net zero? Within a fund. Yes within a fund. Okay. Thanks
- Any other questions for the controller? Anything else for the good of the order comes my rough When
- you say within a fund you mean with where the funds come for to fund that Thing you're talking about.
- I mean like the general fund the Edie lid fund Okay, anything else Thank you to the administration and
- it's been a very productive process
- We're adjourned.